About This Site
Edition Open Access is a publication of the Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge.
The Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge comprises four series, Studies, Proceedingds, Essays and Sources. Based on and extending the functionalities of the existing open access repository European Cultural Heritage Online (ECHO), they present research results and the relevant sources in a new format, combining the advantages of traditional publications and the digital medium. The volumes are available both as printed books available via print-on-demand, but also as online open-access color publications. They present original scientific work submitted under the scholarly responsibility of members of the Scientific Board and their academic peers.
The volumes of the four series and their electronic counterparts are directed at scholars and students of various disciplines, as well as at a broader public interested in how science shapes our world. They provide rapid access to knowledge at low cost. Moreover, by combining print with digital publication, the four series offer a new way of publishing research in flux and of studying historical topics or current issues in relation to primary materials that are otherwise not easily available.
The initiative is supported, for the time being, by research departments of three Max Planck Institutes, the MPI for the History of Science, the Fritz Haber Institute of the MPG, and the MPI for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute). This is in line with the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, launched by the Max Planck Society in 2003.
Each volume of the Studies series is dedicated to a key subject in the history and development of knowledge, bringing together perspectives from different fields and combining source-based empirical research with theoretically guided approaches. The studies are typically working group volumes presenting integrative approaches to problems ranging from the globalization of knowledge to the nature of scientific innovation.
Each volume of the Proceedings series presents the results of a scientific meeting on current topics and supports further cooperation on these issues by offering an electronic platform with further resources and the possibility for comments and interactions.
Each volume of the Essays series contains a paper which makes evaluated or reviewed final research results available or a preprints representing incentives for discussion and improvement. Thus, the series serves to circulate rapidly the outcome of specialized scholarly work, but also opens up a possibility of continous revisions as living publications tracing scientific progress.
Each volume of the Sources series typically presents a primary source -- relevant for the history and development of knowledge -- in facsimile, transcription, or translation. The original sources are complemented by an introduction and by commentaries reflecting original scholarly work. The sources reproduced in this series may be rare books, manuscripts, documents or data that are not readily accessible in libraries and archives.
