Cooperation with Russian and Belarusian Institutions Suspended – Immediate Impact on Joint Publications
8 March 2022 including updates
We are deeply concerned about the senseless war in Ukraine and the human suffering it is causing. The Russian government’s attack, supported by the Belarusian government, on a democratic country at the heart of Europe is a blatant violation of international law. It not only has devastating consequences for the people of Ukraine but also damages the trust-based, successful collaboration with Russian and Belarusian institutions in the world of science.
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research has instructed German research establishments to suspend all collaborations with Russian and Belarusian institutions with immediate effect. This decision also reflects the stance of Forschungszentrum Jülich and it is one that we fully support. Our thoughts are with all peace-seeking people in Russia and Belarus and we would like to express our utmost support to the numerous Russian scientists who have spoken out against this war.
Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany – 25.02.2022 – Statement – Solidarity with partners in Ukraine – Consequences for the scientific community (in German)
Guidelines applying to all employees of Forschungszentrum Jülich
As of 8 March 2022:
- Joint publications (texts, data, and software) with authors from Russian and Belarusian institutions may no longer be started, continued, or submitted to a publisher and/or published on a preprint server. Publications that are already in the process of publication must be halted with reference made to the suspension of cooperation (draft attached). If employees of Forschungszentrum Jülich are not in the role of corresponding authors, they must revoke their consent to publication. The Central Library will provide support in this regard if required.
- Publications are also no longer permitted if individual authors (e.g. visiting scientists) have a Russian or Belarusian affiliation in addition to their affiliation to Forschungszentrum Jülich (or JARA).
- Publications of any kind may no longer be submitted to publishing companies based in Russia or Belarus. Publications that are already in the process of being published must be halted with reference made to the suspension of cooperation. This also affects journals published by a Russian/Belarusian publisher in cooperation with a western publisher, e.g. the journal Physics of Atomic Nuclei, which is published jointly by Springer Nature and Pleiades Publishing (Moscow).
Blacklist of the Russian and Belarusian journals affected by the cooperation ban
Update 31 March 2022:
Co-publications with partners who are affiliated with a Russian or Belarusian institution may no longer be started, continued, or submitted to a publisher and/or published on a preprint server. Publications that are already in the process of publication must be halted with reference made to the suspension of cooperation (draft attached). If employees of Forschungszentrum Jülich are not in the role of corresponding authors, they must revoke their consent to publication. The Central Library will provide support in this regard if required.
In detail:
- New co-publications with partners who are affiliated with a Russian or Belarusian institution must not be submitted.
- Co-publications with partners, who are affiliated with a Russian or Belarusian institution, and that have already been submitted or are being reviewed must be brought to a halt.
- Co-publications with partners who are affiliated with a Russian or Belarusian institution and which have already been accepted will be brought to a halt. They may be further processed if approved by the Board of Directors on a case-by-case basis upon plausible and sound justification.
Update 24 April 2023:
4. Exceptions are permitted in cases where all coauthors working at a Russian institution agree to omit their affiliation and the following criteria also apply:
- Data acquisition and data evaluation were completed before February 2022.
- The collaboration is not a bilateral cooperation but is rather a consortium of several international partners.
- Not including the Russian coauthors is incompatible with good scientific practice.
- The Russian coauthors do not include their affiliation and the note “Affiliation not applicable” is added instead.
- It is not possible to split the publication.
Guidelines applying to the Central Library at Forschungszentrum Jülich
- No more payments may be made for publications that have been prepared jointly with authors from Russian or Belarusian institutions and for which Forschungszentrum Jülich would have an obligation to pay. The Central Library will inform the publishers proactively with reference made to the suspension of cooperation.
- The Central Library will notify Russian/Belarusian publishing companies and their western cooperation partners that have issued publications from Forschungszentrum Jülich in the last five years about the cooperation ban and request that they no longer publish publications from Jülich (including JARA).
All of the above regulations also apply if the relevant publication has already been published on a preprint server.
Your contact at ZB
Dr. Bernhard Mittermaier
Email: b.mittermaier@fz-juelich.de
Tel.: +49 02461 61-3013
Head of the Central Library
Update – Responses from the publishers concerned
Springer Nature (14.03.2022)
Copernicus (14.03.2022)
Elsevier (23.03.2022)