Sociology and Criminology-Open Access
Open Access

Law-open-access

The number of open access (OA) publications in the field of law is relatively modest. However, as in other disciplines, too, the online publication of scholarly works, for example dissertations, is increasing. Hence, as of August 2014, the German database Dissonline.de listed 1,165 jurisprudential dissertations.

Because current legal literature is needed in many areas of work, and the demand is correspondingly high, the prices of books and journals can be described as moderate, especially by comparison with those in the natural science disciplines. There is a lot of competition in the legal publishing market in Germany, and it is not unusual for authors to receive a small fee when they publish their works with renowned publishers with high circulation figures. Moreover, because of the many legal databases available, legal scholars and practitioners usually have online access to a large number of full texts - albeit for a fee. Hence, the incentive to actively campaign for alternative publishing models is commensurately low.