With "KIT Tagging," you or your institute can tag your publications with keywords or tags of your own choosing and thus sort them individually according to specific criteria, whether for searching in KITopen data recording & publication or for compiling a KITopen publication list for your website. These tags are used exclusively for internal identification and are not publicly displayed in the KITopen catalog.

When creating a new publication in KITopen Depositing & Publishing, you can enter tags in the “KIT-Tagging” data field. If you have already assigned tags, you can search for them using the dropdown menu or by typing in the term. If you want to create a new tag, enter it in the field and press Enter—the new tag will then be permanently saved and can be selected from the list during future entries.

The predefined search options in KITopen Depositing & Publishing search the database based, among other things, on the name you used to register with KITopen (via your KIT account). A common reason why your publication is not found is that your name was not entered correctly in the “Author” field during submission; the system is then unable to match this publication with the name you used to register in KITopen.

Please email us the publication that cannot be found using the predefined search queries; we will then determine the reason and correct any errors preventing the match. Alternatively, you can use the “Search Mask” option in KITopen data recording & publication at any time to perform a manual search for the publication in question.

In general, all KIT employees have access to KITopen; however, this does not apply to KIT students or employees of other partner institutions, such as Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HKA) or the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Karlsruhe (DHBW)! You can access the platform using your KIT account by entering the login credentials associated with that account. You can register for KITopen Depositing & Publishing on this page.

Please note that you cannot register if your account is assigned to a user group other than “Employees” (students, guests, partners). In such cases and others where you are unable to log in, please contact the KITopen team by phone or email so that we can resolve any login issues or, if you belong to a user group other than “Employees,” grant you access anyway.

Some data fields have been intentionally restricted from being modified by our users after they are entered. If you switch to edit mode in KITopen Depositing & Publishing using the “Edit Publication” option, all attributes that you are permitted to change or update will be listed at the top. If you would like to correct or add other attributes, you can use the “Change Request” option (located below the listed attributes) to send a message to the KITopen team with the desired corrections or additions; and we will take care of it for you.

Unfortunately, students do not have access to KITopen through their KIT account. Unless you are now employed at KIT, please ask the advisor for your thesis at KIT if he or she can enter the information into KITopen Depositing & Publishing on your behalf. That person can then use the submission form to enter the bibliographic data for your thesis by selecting the publication type “Thesis” and subsequently upload the full text of your thesis (as a PDF).

Important: When uploading your thesis, you must confirm that both you and the person who supervised your work at KIT consent to its publication via KITopen.

If you (or your advisor) are unable to register and publish your thesis, the KITopen team will be happy to handle this process for you. However, since in such a case the confirmation described in the previous paragraph cannot be submitted online, you must first fill out a written declaration form and send it to the KITopen team before we can register and publish your thesis on your behalf. We will provide you with this form when you contact us by phone or email regarding the registration of your thesis.

If you have not already published your work elsewhere, you can always publish it as an open-access first publication via KITopen Depositing & Publishing, along with the bibliographic data. If you have already published it through a publisher, secondary publication in KITopen may still be possible, depending on the publisher’s policies and copyright laws. We have set up various workflows for uploading to KITopen, designed to help you determine whether you are permitted to republish your work—which you have already published for the first time with a specific publisher or journal—in KITopen. Backend interfaces check the legal requirements and visually indicate, using a “traffic light system,” whether uploading your full text in the publisher’s version would be valid—or, if the latter is not possible, whether you can instead upload a manuscript version (preprint, postprint) can be pursued instead.

As a general rule: If you’re unsure whether and under which full-text type an upload of your publication is possible, don’t hesitate—go ahead and upload the full text anyway! The KITopen team reviews every upload before it is approved for publication in our online catalog. You can also contact us at any time in advance by phone or email.

The KITopen license is the most restrictive option for publishing your full text or media file, as you retain all rights and grant only a permanent, non-exclusive right of use for publication in KITopen. With a Creative Commons license, you expand the options for reuse: You retain copyright, but you also grant additional rights for reuse that go beyond KITopen. For example, under all Creative Commons license models, your document may be shared, which is not the case with the KITopen license. With a Creative Commons license, others can immediately see how the document may be used, which allows for faster dissemination.

For more information on “Open Licenses” please visit our dedicated information page.

The archive system sets a maximum limit of 600 GB per dataset. However, to facilitate reuse, it is advisable not to exceed a file size of 50 to 100 GB per dataset.

Very large data sets can be split into multiple data sets and linked to one another. A DOI is generated for each data set. If you have a large number of files, they can be grouped logically, e.g., into ZIP files or other archive formats.

Alternatively, you can also upload your research data via RADAR4KIT. RADAR4KIT offers the option to upload large data packages using WebDAV or via API access. Please contact the OpenScience team for assistance with this.

To ensure the longevity and citability of our database, publications already published in KITopen are generally not simply replaced or superseded by a new version. However, we do allow you to publish a new version using the metadata record already entered in KITopen. You can use this version to upload your corrected version; both the old and the corrected versions will then be displayed in your publication’s KITopen catalog entry and made available for download. Upon request, access to the old version can also be restricted; however, for the sake of traceability, this version will remain visible in the catalog entry.

Please contact us by email if you would like to publish a corrected or updated version of your publication.

KITopen Depositing & Publishing supports the LaTeX markup language, though not in its entirety—only its so-called math mode, which allows for the markup and display of mathematical formulas and symbols in the metadata of our KITopen catalog. General text formatting (such as styling and typesetting), as is possible in TeX/LaTeX software, is not supported. The use of LaTeX’s math mode during cataloging is also limited to specific data fields. These are marked with a corresponding symbol—and clicking on the icon will display a list of the markup commands available in math mode.

Please also note, however, that the correct display of LaTeX-formatted formulas and symbols can only be guaranteed within KITopen and KIT Library’s online catalogs. Whether LaTeX markup displays correctly in search engines or in external databases and repositories that reuse metadata from KITopen depends on the capabilities of those platforms and is therefore beyond our control.

Yes, doctoral researchers can use an alternative login method. On the KITopen Depositing & Publishing homepage, please select the “Access for Doctoral Researchers without a KIT Account” button. 

You will receive an online registration form; once you have saved your information, we will send you an invitation. (The invitation is not sent automatically but is sent personally by the KITopen team, so it may take some time for you to receive it.) Once you have accepted the invitation, you will receive another email that allows you to create a password. Please note: This email sometimes ends up in the junk folder, so please check there if necessary! You can then log in to KITopen using your email address and password.

No, as a rule, no additional documents need to be submitted other than the PDF file. You will confirm online, when uploading your dissertation, that the submitted thesis matches the version approved by the reviewers.

Yes, after publication, we will send a confirmation via email to the relevant dean’s office.

After you have uploaded your PDF file to KITopen, we will review your thesis and generally send you a re-registration via email within one week. If we have no questions, the thesis will be published within that time frame, and you will receive a publication confirmation via email. The relevant dean’s office will be notified of the publication. If we receive a large number of theses at the same time (typically before the summer break in July/August and before Christmas), there may be longer wait times. We appreciate your understanding.

Yes, if the thesis may only be published after a certain period of time due to a patent application or publication in a journal, a request for a publication embargo may be submitted. The thesis' metadata will be published immediately in KITopen, while the full text will be made available only after the embargo period has expired. The doctoral diploma is generally issued immediately, even if a non-disclosure notice is in place (if older doctoral regulations are being used, please check with the department).

Yes, by publishing in KITopen, you are simply granting us a permanent, non-exclusive right of use for electronic publication in KITopen, so that other publication channels remain open to you. You retain the copyright.

Even if you have licensed your thesis under a Creative Commons license, you retain the copyright, but you also grant additional rights for further use that extend beyond KITopen. See also the FAQ entry “What is the difference between the KITopen license and a Creative Commons license?”

Please verify whether you have obtained permission from the publishers to publish the content and format of the manuscripts you are using electronically and freely accessible in KITopen. This information can often be found on the publisher’s website. The Jisc Open Policy Finder also provides an overview of the various publisher policies.
In general, it is advisable to secure the rights for Open Access publication in advance. If necessary, however, the right to secondary publication can also be obtained retroactively. Further information on authors’ rights can be found on our respective webpage.

If the original article was published under an Open Access license (e.g., a CC license), it can be reused in KITopen without any issues. If you would also like to use a CC license for your thesis in KITopen and the original articles it contains were published under a different CC license, please check whether the various license models are compatible with one another.

Yes, through KITopen Depositing & Publishing, you can also capture and publish audio and video files, and you have various options for restricting access to your media content (e.g., limiting access to the KIT campus or making it available worldwide). You can also embed your content on your KIT website using an embedded link. All media content published in KITopen can be searched for and played via KIT Library's Media Portal.

All audio and video files are automatically provided with an embed code in various resolutions, which you can use to embed them in web pages. This code allows you to embed the media file—along with its original player—into another web page. In this case, all features, such as playback speed options and subtitles, will also work.

You can access the embed code in the KITopen Media Portal in the full-screen view of the media file under the “Export” tab.

For audio and video files with an “Internet” distribution scope, the media library URL is also displayed, which can be used to integrate the content into a media library with the corporate design via Open Text. In this case, the respective browser’s player is used for playback. This means that features of the original player in KITopen—such as subtitles or adjusting playback speed—generally do not work. If these features are important, please use the embed code (see above) instead. The embed code and direct link will also be sent to you via email after your audio/video is published.

See also the information under “How do I embed videos on my website?”

ILIAS does not support embedding via an embed code. However, you can embed your media file as a media object using a direct link (media library URL) instead. Or you can use the H5P video player to enhance your video as an interactive video with interactive content (e.g., quizzes or comments).

You can find detailed information on this on the ZML website under the “Provision and Reuse” section in the “Reuse of Your Own Recordings” division.

Yes, all OpenCast media files available in ILIAS can be administered using the OpenCast Recording Management (OC-AV) service and published via KITopen. You have two options for doing this:

Option 1: Via KITopen Depositing & Publishing:

• After logging in, select the "Import from ILIAS/OC-AV" button in the "KITopen Teaching" box.
• You’ll see an overview of all media files assigned to you that have been fully processed.
• You can import and publish any media files that have not yet been saved in KITopen to KITopen by clicking the button of the same name.
• Media files that have already been saved in KITopen are marked accordingly. You can access these via the link and correct the metadata if necessary.

Option 2: Via OC-AV:

• After logging in to OC-AV, click the "Manage Completed Recordings" button. You’ll see an overview of all media assigned to you that have been fully processed.
• Open the desired record in full view and open the “Publication Channels” panel.
• Here, you can import and publish your media file to KITopen by clicking “Administration for KITopen Publication.”

KITopen is intended to list all publications by KIT scientists. For this reason, it also includes credentials for publications without full text. If the publication you are looking for is not available in full text in KITopen, you can also search the KIT Library’s collection for a print or electronic copy of the publication. You can search for essays and articles from journals, conference proceedings, books, etc., in “Articles & Papers.” You can find print and electronic books in the KIT Catalog.

Whether a specific publication is displayed correctly on the KITopen publication lists—which were integrated into your website by your institute’s webmaster—depends largely on two criteria: 1. When creating the publication list, the webmaster defined all the necessary criteria to ensure a correct match between the list and KITopen, so that all of your publications will appear on your list. 2. Your publications have been correctly recorded in KITopen data recording so that they can be transferred to the list based on the specified criteria.

Which criterion was not met in the case of a missing publication depends on the specific circumstances and must be reviewed by us on a case-by-case basis. Please report this case or these cases to us via email, providing the URL of the website where your KITopen publication lists are embedded and specifying the missing publication(s).

When a publication is entered into KITopen, all authors involved in the publication must be listed in the “Author” field, even if they are not employed at KIT. This increases the likelihood that the system—whether through the predefined search options or via a KITopen publication list—will incorrectly assign a publication to a namesake. Please notify us via email of the incorrectly assigned publication, and we will ensure that it is no longer displayed to you in the future.

ORCID is an internationally recognized identifier for researchers that both increases researchers' visibility and offers a nonprofit research profile service as an alternative to commercial services (such as Google Scholar). Learn more.

KIT Library regularly collects KIT research results from various databases and reference systems. Researchers at KIT benefit from having an ORCID ID, as it significantly improves the indexing of their publications in KITopen. Data matching is then performed using the internationally recognized ORCID ID. In KITopen, publications, presentations, research data, Open Educational Resources (OER), and other research information are directly assigned to the respective researchers based on their personal ORCID IDs.

KITopen makes your research visible worldwide and collaborates with the international research profile service ORCID to achieve this. This requires a transfer of rights to KITopen, which entails updating your ORCID profile with the research information recorded in KITopen. The service will be gradually expanded based on this.

By granting these permissions, you recognize KITopen as a "trusted" source. You grant "read limited" permissions so that KITopen can read and reuse the publicly available information in your ORCID profile. You are also granting the "update biography" and "update activities" permissions so that KITopen may update your ORCID profile with additional information from KIT.

You have the option to link your ORCID directly to KITopen. On your personal "My KITopen" homepage, you can set up the link under "ORCID and Your Profile."

By reviewing and confirming your media list in KITopen, you can have your ORCID profile populated automatically. You can find your media list on the "My KITopen" homepage under "Your Media in Your Profile." Only media that have been reviewed in advance will then be exported to ORCID.

You can continue to manually update your ORCID profile and import your research output from other profiles. In addition, ORCID offers numerous options for customizing your profile's visibility.