News

Please find older news releases in our News Archive.

03/2024

At the core of the Max Planck Digital Library's mission, Minerva Messenger emerges, based on Mattermost: Born from the necessity of seamless collaboration during the unforeseen challenges of 2020, this platform has quickly become a valuable communication tool for the MPG.

Minerva Messenger was developed by MPDL's forward-thinking approach and the critical requirement for a secure, intuitive platform. This service not only facilitates effortless communication but also enables MPG researchers and their collaboration partners to share documents securely, manage projects through dedicated channels, and collaborate in real time, ensuring that innovation continues unabated.

Discover the whole story of how the service came to life and what features you get as an MPG researcher here.

 

More info:

Minerva Messenger

Minerva Messenger Knowledge Base

02/2024

The MPDL is pleased to announce its ongoing participation in the Germany-wide transformative open access agreements with Wiley and Springer Nature. On behalf of the Max Planck Society, the MPDL has again signed up for the two agreements, ensuring that Max Planck researchers can continue to publish their work open access at no cost to them, while also maintaining access to the publishers’ journal portfolios.

The opt-in agreements with two publishers were negotiated by the DEAL Konsortium, on behalf of the Alliance of Science Organizations in Germany. Having achieved the required institutional participation rates, the contracts are now officially in place, running from 1 January 2024 through 31 December 2028.

Read the announcement on the DEAL Konsortium webpage

 

More info
Information for authors (Wiley)
Information for authors (Springer Nature)
List of Wiley and Springer Nature journals on the MPG OA Journal Finder

02/2024

The Max Planck Digital Library has renewed the read and publish agreement with The Company of Biologists. The agreement will run from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2026, and corresponding authors at Max Planck Society’s 86 institutes can continue to publish research articles immediately Open Access (OA) in our hybrid journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology) and our fully Open Access journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open) without paying an article processing charge (APC). Researchers at participating institutions also benefit from unlimited access to our hybrid journals, including their full archives dating back to 1853.

“We at the MPDL are delighted to extend our collaboration with The Company of Biologists, which means we can continue to offer our researchers the possibility to publish open access in all the publisher’s journals as well as access to all previously published content," says Ádám Dér, Head of the Scientific Information Provision at MPDL. "Providing these opportunities to our authors is at the heart of our overall strategy in the world of scholarly publishing, in line with the Max Planck Society’s vision of openness, which in turn reflects the principles of the OA2020 Initiative and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access.”

Read the full announcement here

 

More info

Information for Max Planck authors

OA2020 Initiative

02/2024

The Open Science Days 2024 took place on January 29 -30. After the unfortunate news about the train workers union strike, the event switched to a virtual format. This did not hinder avid participation and exciting new discourses forming on all facets of Open Science. Two days of excellent presentations have left us with creatively racing thoughts. 

It started right away with an all-around presentation by Open Science Coordinator Sünje Dallmeier-Tiessen from CERN. The Open Science Group there offers services at every imaginable level. Of particular interest here is the brand new Open Source Program Office, which even takes care of Open Hardware. After a long break, we had a contribution on the subject of Open Access. Our colleague Ádám Dér from the MPDL, who heads the Scientific Information Provision Department, gave us all an excellent overview of current developments in this area. Inga Ulusoy told us about the Scientific Software Center (SSC) at Heidelberg University. This central facility offers an incredible all-around carefree package in the field of Research Software for its scientists, which is undoubtedly unparalleled in this form in Germany. Reproducibility, which is always of central importance for Open Science, was covered in the vast European project Tier2. The ambitious plans were presented by Alexandra Bannach-Brown from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH). The Face Game project at the MPI for Human Development combines several exciting aspects: this Citizen Science project is about humans' decision-making processes and artificial intelligence. All of this is strongly combined with game principles – science can be fun! We also delved into other topics, such as Open Science MonitorsOpen Research Data, and Knowledge Graphs.

We would like to thank all the speakers and participants for this wonderful and active conference. 

If you are interested in getting the whole insights into our Open Science Days 2024, you are welcome to check out the speaker presentations that will be gradually published on the Open Science Days homepage.

 

More info:

Open Science Days Website

Speaker Presentations here

12/2023

The Digital Change 2023 symposium about the future of science management within the MPG took place at Seeon Monastery from 20th to 22nd November. The event, organized by the MPDL, brought together research coordinators, science communicators and experts to discuss science communication, the use of AI in science, research data management, open science and many other digital developments.

The symposium for MPG research coordinators took place for the first time under the new name "Digital Change". By focussing on innovations and trends relating to digital change, the MPDL aims to promote discussion and contribute to utilizing the opportunities of digital change for research and science. On a small island in the Seeon Lake, the Seeon Monastery provided the perfect atmosphere for the exchange of knowledge. The event was well received and highlighted the growing demand for the topics covered within the MPG.

More info:

Digital Change Website

11/2023

We have developed a new desktop application for Edmond. UpVerse is a standalone application that you can install on your laptop. The application allows you to easily publish a lot of data and whole folder structures via click & drop to Edmond. Technically, it also works via the API interface. However, UpVerse has an attractive user interface so that it can be used without prior IT knowledge.

UpVerse is now online and works on Windows, Apple, and Linux. It is available to the Edmond/MPG community but also to the entire Dataverse community (Open Source Community). Additionally, you can find a tutorial and visual documents for easy handling on GitHub.

More Info:

UpVerse App here

Go to Edmond 

10/2023

The sixth bloxberg Summit took place this year in Belgrade on October 26-27. The Summit was hosted by the Faculty of Organizational Sciences of the University of Belgrade in cooperation with the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL). The expansion of the world's largest proof-of-authority network, operated exclusively by scientific institutions, was discussed. The technology, developed under the MPDL initiative and launched in 2019 with ten international universities, is a groundbreaking example of the application of blockchain in science. bloxberg acts as a pioneer for decentralized global infrastructure in the scientific field.

During the summit, Max Planck Society (MPG) was appointed Chair of the Board of the Association. It is represented by MPDL. For the very first time, the Summit was also opened to the general public on the second day. Under the theme "Blockchain Adaptation in Science," attendees had the opportunity to engage and network with prominent industry leaders such as Wolfram Alpha, Ethernity Cloud, ScieNFT, and other respected third parties.

For more detailed information, read the official bloxberg Association press release here.

10/2023

The Open Research Data Repository Edmond received certification from the CoreTrustSeal Foundation in October 2023. The CoreTrustSeal is an internationally recognized award for digital repositories that meet the highest standards in research data management.

The certification confirms the repository's commitment to long-term data storage, data integrity, and openness. Edmond has thus demonstrated that it complies with international best practices for the management and provision of research data.

The award of the Core Trust Seal is an important recognition for Edmond and underlines its role as a trusted repository for high-quality research data. Researchers can now access Edmond's extensive database with even more confidence, publish their research data, and benefit from its high-quality content.

More info:

CoreTrustSeal Foundation

Edmond Data Repository

10/2023

Following the announcement of the open access agreement between the DEAL Consortium and Elsevier last month, the Max Planck Society has now officially signed up as a participating institution, in a significant broadening of open access publication and reading options for Max Planck authors.

The agreement, which is in effect since 16 October, 2023 and runs through the end of 2028, allows authors across the Society to publish their research in Elsevier's journals—including well-known journal brands such as Cell Press and The Lancet—as Open Access articles under an open license retaining their copyright, with the publication fees being centrally covered by the Max Planck Digital Library. This comes in addition to the reestablishment of comprehensive reading access to virtually the entire Elsevier journal collection hosted on ScienceDirect.

Information for authors

DEAL-Elsevier agreement details

10/2023

Since October 2023 the MPDL has a new home! From now on we can be found at Landsberger Straße 346 in Munich. The move to the "MARK" building highlights the beginning of an exciting new chapter and creates new opportunities for the services of the MPDL, which are provided to the scientists of the Max Planck Society.

The building was constructed with environmental sustainability in mind and contributes to our commitment to a green future. By doing so, we are pleased to be able to contribute to the promotion of sustainable working environments in the scientific community.

MPDL employees were closely involved in the conception and design of the space and common areas. The result is a modern and inspiring work environment that also provides numerous opportunities to meet and exchange ideas to foster a forward-thinking and innovative work culture.

We warmly welcome all employees of the Max Planck Society to our new home in Munich-Laim!

NEWHOME V.2 min

09/2023

The conscious use of research software is becoming increasingly important. The Max Planck Digital Library supports scientists in this. To this end, the MPDL has written an application for software management plans (SMP). It can be used to organize projects with research software in the open-source application RDMO. This application has now been revised and handed over to the RDMO community.

At the same time, the MPDL team has written an additional application to look at the own software according to the FAIR principles for research software (FAIR4RS). This complements the work with an SMP and enables scientists to check the FAIRness of their own code. In addition to quality management, this can, i.e. also be used for third-party funding applications.

More info:

RDMO for MPG hier

MPDL RDMO Support: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

09/2023

Germany’s Projekt DEAL and Elsevier have entered into a new transformative agreement, in line with the objectives of the Open Access 2020 Initiative. The agreement has been officially announced earlier today.

Universities and research institutions in Germany are invited to sign up to the agreement.

Researchers will be able to publish Open Access in Elsevier journals under the DEAL agreement once their institution has joined the consortium. The agreement also grants reading rights for all Elsevier journal content to all participating institutions.

The consortium is organized by MPDL Services gGmbH, which will send the DEAL-eligible institutions (which include about 900 universities, universities of applied sciences, federal and state research institutions, etc.) the participation documents by the beginning of October.

The MPDL is organizing the participation of the entire Max Planck Society in DEAL and will now start preparing the next steps. We will update our websites with the relevant information as soon as it is available.

Information on the terms and conditions of the contract can be found on the DEAL Konsortium website and if you have any questions or comments, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

07/2023

In early June, national-level delegations representing research communities from 38 countries across six continents gathered at the 16th Berlin Open Access Conference (B16).

Hosted by the Max Planck Society, initiator of the Berlin conference series, and organized by the Max Planck Digital Library’s Open Access 2020 Initiative (OA2020), the conference was held as a strategy meeting of global actors in research communication committed to advancing viable strategies to replace the subscription paywall model underlying the bulk of today’s scholarly journals with transparent and sustainable models that deliver immediate and open access to the results of research, enabling maximum scientific and societal impact.

B16 conference outcomes, including key insights to guide the research community’s next steps and final statement for publishers, are now available on the OA2020 website.

b16 participantsParticipants of B16
Photo: © CC-BY-SA Georg Botz
07/2023

We are excited to have participated in the Festival of the Future at the renowned Deutsches Museum, showcasing the benefits of the bloxberg blockchain as one of the founding members. Our team successfully introduced bloxberg to diverse audiences, including universities, organizations, students, startups, and curious individuals. The response to our blockchain technology was overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the growing demand for decentralized science.

During this event, our deputy managers, provided valuable insights into how to blockchainify your data as well as the demand for decentralized science. This was also further discussed in a connected panel discussion on "DeSci Meets GovTech: Unlocking the Power of Blockchain".

Moreover, our team could attend numerous fascinating talks on AI, Life Sciences, Quantum Computing, New Space, Metaverse, Energy, Mobility, ClimateTech, Communications, and Web3. All discussions gave us valuable insights into cutting-edge technologies and their potential applications.

Overall, the Festival of the Future was an incredible platform for us to promote bloxberg, our work within the MPDL and connect with like-minded individuals, and contribute to the discourse on the future of technology. We are genuinely excited about the new connections forged and the new opportunities that have emerged.

 

More info:

bloxberg

Festival der Zukunft

06/2023

We are thrilled to share some interesting news: Distributed ledger technologies, including blockchain infrastructures, are on the verge of transforming the scientific community. On June 19,   MPDL presented the bloxberg blockchain to the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) Community during the NFDI InfraTalk, showcasing its potential impact on scientific research.

In the NFDI InfraTalk, scientists from different disciplines present exciting topics around NFDI and research data management. In this recent episode "Protect Your Intellectual Property: The Benefits of Certifying Your Research Data on the World's Largest Scientific Blockchain Network bloxberg", we provided valuable insights into the largest international scientific blockchain with a proof-of-authority consensus.Recognized for its high potential in scientific endeavors, bloxberg allows researchers worldwide to create a transparent record of their work without disclosing its contents, timestamping their research data, and safeguarding their intellectual property. 

NFDI systematically connects and makes valuable scientific data accessible for the entire German science system. Its primary objective is to create a permanent digital knowledge repository, following the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). NFDI consortia, consisting of various research institutions, collaborate interdisciplinary to achieve this goal. 

MPDL is actively working to monitor and stay updated on the activities of MPIs within the NFDI. Additionally, MPDL is actively participating in an MPG working group dedicated to the advancement of the German National Research Data Infrastructure.

 

More info:

Watch the full talk here

bloxberg

NFDI

05/2023

Exciting news: We're moving! The MPDL is spreading its digital wings and opening a new chapter full of innovation, collaborations and novel services.

Starting in the third quarter, the MPDL is moving together with MPDL Services (MPDLS) to MARK in Munich Laim. With contemporary offices, clever concepts such as co-working, flex-space and conference zones, state-of-the-art technical equipment and sophisticated communication zones, the new building offers the best conditions for creative exchange and effective collaboration. With the arrival of the MPDL and MPDLS, another building block is being created to revitalize Munich's 25th district. With the presence of the MPDL, Laim is complemented by one of the lighthouses for digital transformation in science, thus forming a cornerstone for the expansion of a sustainable, scientific user structure of the neighborhood.

With one laughing and one crying eye, we say "bye bye Amalienstraße!" and at the same time look forward with great anticipation to a new, exciting chapter ahead. Moving to our new home not only brings a breath of fresh air, but also opens up a wide range of new possibilities and opportunities for us.

MARK2News

(Source: Knight Frank München)

 

More info:
Press Release

05/2023

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the seminal Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. In the upcoming 16th Berlin Open Access Conference, organized by the OA2020 Initiative and hosted by the Max Planck Society, we will return to the setting where the Berlin Declaration originated. There, we will refine and renew our approaches to achieving the vision for an open information environment in the service of science and society, with a particular focus on transformative agreements (TAs).

The current growing body of TAs negotiated worldwide—from Peru to Canada, from South Africa to Norway, and from Australia to China—demonstrates that this approach to dismantling the deficiencies and inequities of the subscription-based system in scholarly publishing is both viable and scalable. With the first movers to integrate TAs into their national open access strategies now nearing their goals of open access to 100% of their research outputs and setting their sights on broader open science objectives, the way is paved for the global research community to swiftly forge ahead, together.

The 16th Berlin Open Access Conference: Together for Transformation, will assemble national-level delegations, including scientists and scholars, senior library, higher education, funder and government leaders from 38 countries around the world. Together, they will assess the performance of scholarly publishers in meeting the objectives and expectations set out by the research community engaged in transformative open access negotiations and formulate collective next steps to shape an open scholarly publishing paradigm in the service of science that is transparent, inclusive, sustainable and financially equitable on a global scale.

Outcomes of the conference will be shared with the broader research community on the B16 webpage.

05/2023

The Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL), on behalf of the Max Planck Society, has reached a three-year transformative agreement with the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The agreement covers open access (OA) publishing of articles in PNAS.

The three-year pilot agreement, which runs from May 1, 2023 through April 30, 2026, enables corresponding authors affiliated with the Max Planck Society to publish their research articles open access in PNAS without paying individual article processing charges (APCs). The agreement also includes access to PNAS content for all Max Planck Society researchers.

Ádám Dér, Head of the Scientific Information Provision at MPDL, commented: “This transformative agreement with PNAS marks another important step in enabling Max Planck authors to publish their research open access, increasing their global impact and readership. By making our researchers’ work widely and freely available to fellow scientists wherever they may be, we further implement the vision of the OA2020 Initiative.”


Read the full announcement

Information for authors

04/2023

We are thrilled to announce its partnership with the project OpenSci.net, an innovative open-access publication marketplace for scientific content that connects researchers, publishers, and readers through a secure and transparent DLT-based platform. The innovative open-access publication marketplace for scientific content will use the bloxberg blockchain, initiated by MPDL, to provide a decentralized and tamper-proof system for managing the publication process.
This will allow for greater transparency and accountability while giving authors and readers greater control over the publishing process. Through their collaboration, OpenSci.net and bloxberg aim to make the benefits of blockchain technology accessible to the scientific community and develop new standards in scientific publishing services.
Read the press release here.

More info:

OpenSci.net

bloxberg 

03/2023

We are organizing a Labfolder User Workshop on the 11-12 of May, 2023, at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.
Labfolder is an electronic laboratory notebook, becoming increasingly popular within the Max Planck Society, with users being spread across many different institutions and locations. Therefore, we are organizing a workshop for the key users of Labfolder within the Max Planck Society. The event is intended as a place to share and learn about people using Labfolder in their daily routines, offering you many opportunities to exchange, expand your knowledge and learn.
The primary target audience are those colleagues who use Labfolder in their daily work. The event is intended as a place to share and learn about people using Labfolder in their daily routines. Have you been working with Labfolder regularly for a longer time? Do you write your lab book with it? Do you use or interact with the REST API automatically or with scripts? Then this workshop offers you many opportunities to exchange, expand your knowledge and learn.
The workshop is not planned in a presentation-discussion mode. Instead, we would like to encourage conversation with each other. Therefore, we are not looking for presentations. In contrast, we have included a lot of time for discussion in the program. At the same time, such an event lives from active participation. To encourage this, we would like to introduce the various Labfolder solutions at Max Planck Institutes via short introductory lightning talks. For this, we are looking for colleagues who can briefly present their local Labfolder applications in two minutes. Do you want to contribute with a 2-minute talk? Please let us know via rdm [at] mpdl [dot] mpg [dot] de.

Weitere Infos:

RDM Website

Labfolder Workshop Program

Register here

 

02/2023

Exciting news! On February 14, 2023, the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) joined the first NEB Digital Talk Series webinar hosted by digiNEB, where they showcased the bloxberg blockchain and its potential use in the creative industries.

bloxberg is a secure global blockchain that was founded by the MPDL, which allows scientists to certify raw research data on a blockchain, ensuring the protection of intellectual property and the authenticity of data. It is also part of the broad Research Service Catalog of the MPDL, which includes various tools and services for scientists of the Max Planck Society. The MPDL is constantly working to optimize the research process of MPG scientists by providing reliable and effective digital solutions. Blockchain technology has been proven to be a helpful tool for this purpose.

The NEB Digital Talk Series was organized by the New European Bauhaus (NEB), a creative and transdisciplinary initiative that aims to connect the European Green Deal to people's daily lives and living spaces. The event highlighted bloxberg's already existing use cases in registering ideas and promoting fair attribution, encouraging greater sharing of ideas in co-creation processes. For more information on using bloxberg for intellectual property in the creative and cultural environment, visit the bloxberg website.

More info

bloxberg

digiNEB

digineb 2nd webinar V2

02/2023

This month we are celebrating the EdMONTH – your opportunity to get to know Edmond – our research data repository for Max Planck researchers – a little better. It is the place to store completed datasets of research data with open access. Edmond serves for the publication of research data from all disciplines and offers scientists the ability to create citable research objects.

With Edmond, MPDL has allowed its users to create citable research objects with DOI without a usage fee or limitations while storing data within the Max Planck Society's infrastructure. Making daily work and the publication & citeability of research data easier and becoming a reliable service for many years. 

Over 60 Max-Planck-Institutes uploading data, 199 327 uploaded files, and research data from all over the world show MPG scientists and employees' trust in Edmond. We are looking forward to many more years of open-access research data. We love data, we love Edmond!

More info:

Get to know Edmond here!

Edmond Website

 

 

12/2022

A new template for creating software management plans (SMP) is now available on RDMO, making the usage of research software more sustainable.

Software and sustainability in this context are being discussed by many institutions worldwide. The MPDL has therefore made an SMP template available for the RDMO software accessible to the RDMO community with a CC0 waiver. With the software management plan template, scientific software is viewed through the lens of project management. A software management plan (SMP) can make the conception, implementation, and long-term availability significantly easier. The benefit of an SMP completed in advance is the support of the development of an emerging research software with documented information at hand. This clarifies which topics/ project stages still need to be solved or covered.

Sustainability, reproducibility, and reusability are keywords that are being used in the context of research software. In line with the open source idea, we hope for as many re-uses as possible and a concrete added value for others.

The template for a software management plan with its diverse help texts is aimed at scientists. Still, it can also be used by software, information, and infrastructure experts for consultation, project proposals, or needs analysis.

Max Planck scientists and their cooperation partners can now use the SMP template via the RDMO service of the MPDL. All others can use it with their own RDMO instance.

 

More info:

SMP template via the RDMO

If you would like to test the SMP, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

11/2022

This month we are happy to celebrate the fifth birthday of our tool KEEPER, allowing you to sync & share your project data while being properly archived in the Max Planck infrastructure. With KEEPER, MPDL has been providing its users with storage and many collaboration functionalities, making daily work and research easier and becoming a reliable and secure service for five years now. Over 4000 users, 145.3 TB used storage, and around 65.5 Million shared files show the impact KEEPER has made in the daily workflow of MPG scientist, employees, and their cooperation partners. We are looking forward to many more years of organized research data! Happy Birthday, you are a real KEEPER!

More info:

KEEPER

Keeper 5 Banner

11/2022

The Max Planck Society and Brill have established a new collaboration on Open Access for books. Within this new agreement, Brill offers a discount on the book and chapter publication charge for all affiliates of the Max Planck Institutes. Coordinated by the Max Planck Digital Library, 50% of the book or chapter publication charge is funded centrally. The other 50% of the Open Access costs are funded by the applicable Max Planck Institute.

This extensive agreement covers not only monographs and edited volumes, but also individual chapters from Max Planck-affiliated authors to any Brill volume. All 86 Max Planck Institutes are eligible, and the agreement runs for three years, until October 2025.

Dr. Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information at the Max Planck Digital Library, comments: “With this agreement we respond to the articulated demands of our researchers and offer a new opportunity to publish their research results in Open Access. We acknowledge the commitment of Brill to finding pathways to more openness in the system and are very pleased to collaborate with this distinguished publisher.” 

Read the full announcement

Information for authors

11/2022

The fifth bloxberg summit took place as a hybrid conference in Protaras, Cyprus, from October 26-27. This time the annual Consortium meeting was organized for the fifth time in a row by the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) in collaboration with the University of Nicosia, one of the bloxberg founders. The meeting was hosted at the Sunrise Pearl Hotel by the University of Nicosia. At this bloxberg summit, the decision on founding the bloxberg Association for the Advancement of Science and Blockchain e.V. under German legislation was finalized. The Association has been established with an in-person signing ceremony by 13 founding members with eleven research organizations and two individual members. Please see the press release for more information on the summit.

bloxbergAssociationohneFlaschen.jpg

We are looking forward to the next summit! This time the summit is going to be hosted in Belgrade, Serbia, by the Faculty of Organizational Sciences of the University of Belgrade, a founding member of bloxberg.

For more info:

Press Release Fourth bloxberg Summit

bloxberg

10/2022

We are happy to present our new poster on MPDL research data management services. It gives an overview of the different offers and services Max Planck Digital Library provides to MPG colleagues and their collaboration partners. Eight services take a central spotlight, which are presented on the poster along with the service addresses and contacts. The poster is available online in print quality. If you are interested in a printed version for your Max Planck Institute, please contact our RDM support.

 

More info:

RDM Plakat

RDM Website

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

10/2022

As part and initiator of the bloxberg blockchain – the consortium for the advancement of science and blockchain – we are happy to announce the brand new bloxberg homepage!

With the consortium growing steadily for four years, the new bloxberg homepage is not only getting a fresh look and update but also many new features. Learn about bloxberg’s mission, check out all Consortium members on an interactive world map, discover the developer’s hut and get to know all scientific bloxberg applications that can help ease researchers' daily work.

More info:
bloxberg

09/2022

The MPDL Service Catalog has received a new makeover. You can now browse the catalog in the following three categories: Publishing & Reading, Software & Data Services, and Strategic Services. In addition, new service tiles and new texts quickly provide information about how the service will support your daily workflow and research. The new structure simplifies navigation through MPDL's wide variety of services. The content ranges from scientific databases, and a wealth of open access publication services, to blockchain for your science. The new Research Service Catalog is available now! Discover the right service for your research here.

If you can't find what you are looking for or have any questions, feel free to call us at the MPG-City Service Hotline +49 (0) 89 909311-243 (Monday through Friday 7:00-19:00) or send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

More info:

08/2022

Our Minerva Messenger aims to provide a great user experience, so the newest server upgrade comes with new functionalities such as voice calling and screen sharing. These share functions make communication in channels more accessible and efficient – with a click of a button, you can join up to three participants in a voice call.
Another available feature is Insights, offering an overview of the most important activities within your Minerva Messenger workspace. Additionally, a message formatting toolbar has been implemented, allowing you to change text appearance, react with emojis and add hyperlinks. Collapsed reply threads to keep your conversations organized are finally available.
The upgrade also fixed minor security level bugs and functionality placements.

More Info:

Minerva Messenger Upgrade Details

06/2022

Data management is becoming increasingly important for third-party funding applications. Particularly at the European level, requirements for this are increasing. To support this, the MPDL service RDMO for MPG provides a questionnaire on data management for Horizon Europe.

This catalog can be used to organize data management for Horizon Europe projects and ERC grants. For example, it can be used to create data management plans (DMPs). Also, collaborative work can be done on data-specific project management.

More info:

RDMO for MPG

For further questions or onboarding services, please contact our This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

06/2022

Edmond now offers new preview features for different file formats. All file types, without any restriction, can be published with Edmond, the Open Data Repository for the Max Planck Society. In order to view the content of individual files more quickly, different previews are now available directly on Edmond’s user interface.

With the brand new ZIP previewer, Edmond now automatically displays the folder structure including files of a ZIP archive. At the same time, individual files can also be downloaded from the ZIP archive, so that it is no longer necessary to download the entire ZIP file. This gives users a quicker insight into the published research data.

Furthermore, Edmond now also supports the preview of several individual file formats in the browser. This preview applies especially to various text and image formats, pdf files but also audiovisual formats (MP3 & MP4).

More info:

Edmond Repository

For more information, please contact the Edmond support team via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

06/2022

This new plugin enables end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in Minerva Messenger, aiming to authenticate, encrypt, and decrypt messages on the users’ configured devices.

Have you been looking for a safe way to communicate important matters, data, or research findings with your peers and external collaboration partners, without possibly disclosing information? Then this new plugin may be just the thing you were looking for. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a method of secure communication that keeps your data safe while it is being transferred from one end system or device to another.

The encrypted message can only be read on one platform after setting the current channel in encryption mode. For instance, if you start the E2EE on the Minerva Messenger, desktop client, you will not be able to read old encrypted messages via browser. Therefore, this end-to-end plugin could be sufficient for the needs of the lab work in which several team members may use a shared device. While chatting with the private key on your personal device, other users will not be able to read your old messages from a public laptop. 

More info:

Minerva Messenger End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) Plugin

05/2022

The fourth bloxberg Summit took place as a hybrid conference on Mai 3 – 4, 2022, at the LABS workspace at 90 High Holborn building in London. The bloxberg Summit is the annual meeting of the bloxberg Consortium, organized for the fourth time in a row by the MPDL and was hosted by UCL this time.
The bloxberg Consortium discussed four main proposals, which led to groundbreaking changes for the research network. These significant decisions revolved around its legal entity, governance model, tokenomics, and the architecture of the bloxberg infrastructure. Please see the press release for more information on the Summit.

bloxberg bidl

It has been an exceptional event with fruitful discussions in the center of London with over 25 research organizations from all over the world.
We are excited for the next Summit, which will be taking place October 26-27, 2022. This time the Summit is going to be hosted in Protaras, Cyprus, by the University of Nicosia, a founding member of bloxberg.

bloxberg summit 2022 2 banner

For more info:

Press Release Fourth bloxberg Summit

bloxberg

05/2022

Springer Nature has signed its largest institutional OA book deal with the Max Planck Society through the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL). The agreement covers all Springer Nature book imprints, across a broad range of disciplines, providing OA funding to affiliated authors from over 80 Max Planck Institutes. 

The initial three-year agreement, live as of 1st January 2022, will enable authors from all 86 Max Planck Institutes to receive a discount on the standard Book Publishing Charge (BPC) to publish their book OA. MPDL will contribute central funding toward the coverage of the discounted BPC, lowering the costs for authors even further. The discount and funding will be available across all of the publisher's book imprints, under a CC BY licence, ensuring their work is freely accessible and discoverable to all communities across science, technology, medicine, the humanities and social sciences. They will be available to readers around the world via Springer Nature's content platform SpringerLink. 

Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information at the MPDL, commented:

“In establishing this new agreement with Springer Nature, we further advance one of our core missions - to support our authors in the dissemination of their research beyond the restrictions of paywalls. By covering a significant share of the open access book publication costs, we are enabling more of our authors to publish their work openly, increasing readership and impact, in particular for those disciplines where books play a crucial role in the scholarly communication process.”

Read the full announcement

Information for authors

04/2022

Initiated at the request of several Max Planck institutes, the Max Planck Digital Library is supporting the platform „Peer Community in Registered Reports“ by making a one-time funding contribution of 5,000 Euro.

The Peer Community In (PCI) initiative is a non-profit, non-commercial platform that evaluates and recommends preprints in many scientific fields. The overarching aim of this researcher-run organization is to create specific communities of researchers reviewing and recommending, for free, unpublished preprints in their field.

Peer Community in Registered Reports (PCI RR) is a new community dedicated to receiving, reviewing, and recommending Registered Reports (RRs) across the full spectrum of STEM, medicine, the social sciences, and humanities.

RRs are a form of an empirical article in which study proposals are peer-reviewed and pre-accepted before research is undertaken. By deciding, which articles are published based on the question and proposed methods, RRs offer a remedy for a range of research biases, including publication bias and reporting bias.

More info:

PCI Initiative

PCI Registered Reports

PCI YouTube Channel

 

04/2022

In answer to the request of several Max Planck institutes, Max Planck Digital Library now supports PsyArXiv with an annual payment of 1,000 USD over a period of three years. PsyArXiv is a non-commercial preprint server: Preprints and pre-registration are emerging topics within human research. PsyArXiv is a helpful and welcomed tool for a growing number of Max Planck researchers in the field of psychology.

You can find more info here.