12 March 2024

New supporting member: Interdisciplinary Transformation University Austria (IT:U)

We are delighted to announce that the IT:U Interdisciplinary Transformation University Austria has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. IT:U is the first Austrian university to join with a visionary membership.

IT:U is Austria’s first public university exclusively dedicated to the digital transformation of science, business and society. Driving interdisciplinary research through their expertise in the computational sciences, IT:U aims to attract international students from all disciplines and prepare them to transform science, society and the economy by solving key digital challenges and embracing project-based learning.

Gabriele Költringer, Chief Operation Officer at IT:U, outlined the reasons for becoming an Open Knowledge Maps member:

"IT:U and Open Knowledge Maps are following a mutual mission: to provide, develop and widen scientific knowledge, which is the key to every solution. Knowledge makes the difference, and together we can shape the future!" Gabriele Költringer, EMBA, Chief Operation Officer, IT:U Interdisciplinary Transformation University Austria

We warmly welcome IT:U, and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about IT:U

27 September 2023

New supporting member: University of Eastern Finland

We are delighted to announce that the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. UEF is the first Finnish organisation to join Open Knowledge Maps.

The University of Eastern Finland Library is a public scientific library open to everyone who is seeking information. As a public academic library we are offering library and information services especially for the university staff and students. Our main functions are to support teaching and learning and to support research and publishing.

Ari Muhonen, Library Director, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"As a promoter of all the university's strategic goals in research, teaching, continuous learning and open scientific communication, we share a commitment with Open Knowledge Maps to open science and transfer knowledge beyond academia." Ari Muhonen, Library Director, University of Eastern Finland (UEF)

We warmly welcome UEF, and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about the University of Eastern Finland

30 August 2023

New supporting member: The University of Manchester

We are delighted to announce that The University of Manchester (UoM) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. UoM is the first UK member as well as the fourth organisation to join Open Knowledge Maps with a Visionary Membership.

Part of the prestigious Russell Group of universities, UoM is the largest single-site university in the UK, with the biggest student community. The University of Manchester’s Office for Open Research helps to make the work of our 7,000 person strong research and academic community more open and transparent. By aiding the development of open research skills and practices, we are working towards more reproducible, efficient, and rigorous research.

Bill Ayres, Strategic Lead for Research Data Management, and Scott Taylor, Head of the Office for Open Research, outline the reasons for becoming a member:

"We strive to give our researchers, and the teams who work alongside them, truly useful data and information about their open research outputs; we want them to be able to see this in a way which maximises its visual impact and could help them to identify future collaborative partners. Open Knowledge Maps provides the perfect platform for this, and their ethos and approach aligns with our own commitment to open research and bringing research to wider communities." Bill Ayres, Strategic Lead for Research Data Management, The University of Manchester Library Scott Taylor, Head of the Office for Open Research, The University of Manchester Library

We warmly welcome The University of Manchester and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about The University of Manchester

5 July 2023

New supporting member: Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung

We are delighted to announce that the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung (SGN) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. SGN is the second Leibniz Association member to join Open Knowledge Maps and the first to do so with a Sustaining Membership.

The Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung (SGN), a member of the Leibniz Association, was founded in 1817 and represents one of the most relevant institutions investigating nature and its diversity. Currently, over 800 people from more than 40 countries across 11 locations in Germany support and conduct research in the fields of biodiversity, earth system analysis and climate change.

Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner, Director General of the SGN, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"The societies’ primary purpose is to conduct biological and natural research, and to make this accessible to everyone through publication, education, and its museums. Today, its purpose is more important than ever, due to a global increase in both interest and curiosity which leaves many biological questions to be answered, such as those regarding climate change and the conservation of our planet. Therefore we are happy to support Open Knowledge Maps in order to jointly further strengthen the system of 'Open Science' in the future." Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner, Director General, Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung

We warmly welcome the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung

3 May 2023

The GoTriple platform – discover the social sciences and humanities like never before

We are proud to present the GoTriple platform. A result of the TRIPLE project, the GoTriple platform is a free and open discovery solution for the social sciences and humanities (SSH). It provides an innovative way to explore and engage with research in multiple languages across a wide array of disciplines.

In 2019, together with a consortium coordinated by Huma-Num (CNRS), Open Knowledge Maps embarked on the journey of creating this leading-edge discovery platform as a core service of OPERAS and the EOSC. The consortium consisted of 22 partners hailing from 15 EU countries, each bringing a unique perspective to the project.

GoTriple enables the discovery of publications, profiles and research projects via a search engine that is enhanced by a fleet of innovative services. Open Knowledge Maps has been involved in many different aspects of GoTriple, from metadata to platform design and development, training, funding and dissemination. Our main contribution comes in the form of a visual discovery system that complements the list-based interface of the platform.

With the visual discovery system, GoTriple users can either create a knowledge map or a streamgraph for their query. The well-known knowledge map provides an instant overview of a topic by showing the main areas at a glance with relevant research outputs and concepts attached to each area. The novel streamgraph provides an overview of a given topic over time, making it easier to discover trends and gain deeper insight into a specific subject. Both visualisation types were optimised for SSH, in particular catering to the 10+ languages currently covered by GoTriple.

With the visual discovery system, it is also possible to create author maps, which provide an overview of the works of an author. Furthermore, users can generate project maps, enabling them to explore the link between projects, publications and datasets.

Each of these services can be smoothly integrated on their own, tailored to fit the particular needs of any given platform and discipline. This notable outcome of OKMaps’ work on the TRIPLE project has come to be known as the Custom Services, a common technical platform for all of the aforementioned integrations. This platform enables institutions to effortlessly integrate our services, designed with easy maintenance in mind.

The Custom Services also open the door to novel project ideas for innovative discovery solutions in other fields. We cannot revolutionise discovery alone - if you are interested in taking a similar journey with us get in touch.

The TRIPLE project demonstrates that at Open Knowledge Maps we seek out creative ways to develop and expand our services. Coming together with like-minded organisations in order to overcome greater problems enables us to broaden our horizons and provide solutions that can be felt on a global scale. In fact, since its launch, the GoTriple platform has already been nominated as the best Digital Humanities tool of the year.

Discover the social sciences and humanities like never before.

Explore GoTriple

8 February 2023

New supporting member: Université catholique de Louvain

We are delighted to announce that Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. They are the second Belgian university to join Open Knowledge Maps.

Université catholique de Louvain has been committed to Open Science and Open Education since 2015. The creation, dissemination and acquisition of knowledge, both in the field of education and scientific research, is at the heart of the Digital Strategic Plan of the UCLouvain. In 2021, UCLouvain placed Open Science, Open Education and distance learning at the heart of a new digital transformation project on the horizon of the institution's 600th anniversary. It contributes to the implementation of objectives of openness, innovation (transformation of the educational environment) and international dynamics.

Yves Deville, Senior Advisor to the President for the digital university and Open Science of UCLouvain, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"By subscribing to Open Knowledge Maps, we adhere to its mission of making it easier for people to discover and access both research and educational open information. We are convinced that this can help to improve the visibility and impact of our researchers and teachers. Subscribing to Open Knowledge Maps enables us to create custom maps, to visualize the connections between different research papers or open educational resources and to collaborate with other researchers." Prof. Yves Deville, Senior Advisor to the President for the digital university and Open Science of UCLouvain

We warmly welcome Université catholique de Louvain and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about Université catholique de Louvain

25 January 2023

New supporting member: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

We are delighted to announce that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the second funding agency to join Open Knowledge Maps and the first to do so with a Visionary Membership.

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. Ashley Farley, Program Officer at the BMGF, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is committed to information sharing and transparency. We believe that published research resulting from our funding should be promptly and broadly disseminated." Ashley Farley, Program Officer, Knowledge & Research Services team, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

We warmly welcome the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

18 January 2023

New supporting member: FWF

We are delighted to announce that the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. They are the first funding agency worldwide to join Open Knowledge Maps.

The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is Austria’s central funding organisation for basic research. Applying international quality benchmarks, the FWF provides funding for outstanding research projects and excellent researchers who work to generate, broaden and deepen scientific knowledge.

Falk Reckling, Head of the FWF Department Strategy, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"By supporting Open Knowledge Maps, the FWF is expanding its involvement in strengthening publication and research information systems. In the spirit of Open Science, the FWF is committed to supporting open infrastructures as well as a broad range of open systems. OKMaps offers the scientific community an ample amount of openly accessible services. This illustrates how the organization’s values fall in line with our own." Falk Reckling, Head of the FWF Department Strategy – Policy, Evaluation, Analysis

We warmly welcome the FWF and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about FWF

13 December 2022

A gift from OKMaps to you!

2022 is wrapping up, and in the spirit of celebration, we invite you to take a stroll down 2022-lane. This past year has brought quite a few novelties into the OKMaps world.

Thanks to our combined efforts with you, our community, Open Knowledge Maps is witnessing a steady rise of online followers. Just this last year alone, our visual search engine has welcomed over 4 times the number of visits in comparison to last year’s number. We can hear you happy mappers typing away!

Inspired by our continuous conversation with you, we have implemented several highly requested features that can ease your workflow. Let us take a deeper dive into these novel feats!

First in our gift basket, we present you with the citation feature. When it comes to making the dreaded citations list, OKMaps can do the hard part for you, be it APA, MLA, Chicago or ACM. We will cite your articles for you. Meaning, you can focus on what matters, your writing! Simply copy and paste, no need for further confusion. Check it out!

Yet another feature Open Knowledge Maps has rolled out this past year has been the export feature. This allows you to export a document of your choosing from the knowledge map to your desired reference manager. Easy as one, two, three - see for yourself!

Finally, we have also included tags for document types. Thanks to this feature you may identify the type of any document with ease. Within the map we have integrated icons differentiating between text, datasets, maps, audio, video, software, and still images. This allows for quick and easy recognition of what you are looking for. Try creating a knowledge map limited to specific document types to take this feature for a spin!

The Open Knowledge Maps team and our mappers are not the only ones who have been busy this year. Our board of supporting members has made ample contributions to OKMaps, in more ways than one!

A selection of supporting members have successfully integrated our services into their own platforms. Take a moment to check out how the Université de Lausanne included OKMaps on their website by way of showcasing a knowledge map for each of their core research areas. This is just one example of the myriad out there of how OKMaps can assist in optimising an organisation's online experience.

Our team is working steady and hard on providing you with novel developments that may ease your workflow. Be on the lookout for the next big thing!

In the meantime, we wish you all the happiest of holidays and happy mapping. We hope all of the presents we’ve gifted you will enhance your research journey.

Want to give something back?

Donate to OKMaps

18 October 2022

1 Million Strong!

Calling one, calling all, calling… one million? Yes, you read that right, – over 1 million knowledge maps have been created on the Open Knowledge Maps website!

Of course, we rather proudly share this achievement with our immensely multifaceted and curious users. We are grateful and send a big thank you to all the researchers, students, librarians, educators, practitioners, and purely inquisitive people. With the help of this ever-growing community, OKMaps has reached yet another extraordinary milestone in our mission of empowering the world with knowledge one map at a time!

Fun fact: the users of OKMaps hail from nearly every corner of the world. This year alone, we have welcomed visitors from 213 countries and territories. Our busiest hour is between 2pm and 3pm UTC, where users from all over join us in their quest for scientific knowledge. These diverse knowledge-seekers search for myriad terms across all disciplines, creating new maps along the way.

A Growing Community

Our following on social media has also experienced a significant gain in the last few months, thanks to more users sharing their thoughts and feedback on our services, as well as their unique map creations. We welcome each new user with open arms into the long-standing, strong and accelerating community of OKMaps. The advisors, partners and enthusiasts belonging to our community come from highly diverse backgrounds, yet all share a common goal - to make knowledge more accessible and discoverable.

New opportunities

Our board of supporting members is continuously growing as well, with exceptional members who are all helping to make a difference in the future of discovery. Most recently, Open Knowledge Maps has welcomed Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), as well as the KB, National Library of the Netherlands on board, and we eagerly await the endeavors our work together will bring! Each new member allows OKMaps to broaden our horizon, for each new institution provides a fresh perspective as to how far the OKMaps services may reach.

We are always looking forward to hearing the ideas and feedback from our users and supporting members, so that we may continue expanding our services for everyone’s benefit. These efforts are complemented by our collaboration in the TRIPLE and enKORE projects, projects which allow us to address the needs of specific research communities. In addition, our longstanding partnership with our main data provider BASE has proven instrumental in pushing the boundaries of discovery. Novel ideas and opportunities are presenting themselves each step of the way, so stay tuned and do not miss out on new and intriguing developments in the near future!

While you are waiting on those development updates, we suggest you try creating an original map – perhaps one with only audio or still images as the document type. Try something new – you never know what you could discover!

Create your knowledge map

31 August 2022

New supporting member: KB, National Library of the Netherlands

We are delighted to announce that the KB, National Library of the Netherlands has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member.

The National Library of the Netherlands plays a central role in the coordination of the public libraries network within its country. It is currently building a national digital library and is devoted to the promotion of reading, digital inclusion, and lifelong development. The KB is the first Dutch member, as well as the second national library to join Open Knowledge Maps.

Astrid van Wesenbeeck, Open Science Advisor at the KB, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"Paywalls may prove challenging when searching for scholarly publications. Yet another challenge is selecting a publication out of the thousands that may appear in the search results, especially for those outside of academia. Therefore, the KB, National Library of the Netherlands, is happy to officially support Open Knowledge Maps and is eager to explore how to better serve its community together with OKMaps." [Astrid van Wesenbeeck, Open Science Advisor, KB]

We warmly welcome the KB and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about the KB

22 June 2022

New supporting member: EPFL

We are delighted to announce that Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. EPFL is one of Europe’s most vibrant and cosmopolitan science and technology institutions. They are the second Swiss Federal Institute of Technology joining Open Knowledge Maps.

The EPFL Library provides access to scientific information, facilitates excellence in teaching and research, and promotes Open Science. Guilaine Baud-Vittoz, Head of Services for Education and Research at EPFL Library, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"We became a Supporting Member of Open Knowledge Maps to support an open and cutting-edge visual search engine for scientific information. Supporting Open Knowledge Maps is part of our commitment towards Open Science." Guilaine Baud-Vittoz, Head of Services for Education and Research, EPFL Library, EPFL

We warmly welcome EPFL and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about EPFL Library

17 May 2022

We welcome our 20th supporting member: KU Leuven

We are delighted to announce that KU Leuven has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. With this addition, our supporting membership program has now grown to twenty members.

Why KU Leuven joined us

KU Leuven Libraries are devoted to stimulating the development of non-profit and community-led open science initiatives. The libraries preserve top collections, manage inspiring learning centers, and offer an extensive list of services to researchers, teachers, students, and external visitors. KU Leuven is the first Belgian institution to join Open Knowledge Maps.

Laura Mesotten from KU Leuven, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"We support a growing number of sustainable and equitable open scholarship infrastructures through the KU Leuven Fund for Fair Open Access. Our support of Open Knowledge Maps fits perfectly with this mission as we believe in the need for a non-profit approach to explore and discover scientific knowledge." Laura Mesotten, Process Manager Research and Open Scholarship, KU Leuven Libraries

About the membership program

The supporting membership program is a key pillar to sustain Open Knowledge Maps, the world’s largest visual search engine for research. Current members include research institutions, libraries, publishers, and library networks. Our supporting members provide a yearly contribution and in return, they are invited to co-create the open infrastructure with us. They are directly involved in the decision-making process as to which features are implemented on Open Knowledge Maps and in our institutional services.

Are you interested in becoming a member as well? We invite further organisations to join us and shape the future of discovery together with us.

Learn more about the membership

02 February 2022

New supporting member: Austrian Library Network and Service Ltd

We are delighted to announce that the Austrian Library Network and Service Ltd (OBVSG) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. They are the first library network joining Open Knowledge Maps.

OBVSG is a service provider for the members of the Austrian Library Network (OBV) and functions as the network’s headquarters. With over 70 participants representing more than 90 individual institutions OBV is the largest cataloguing and services consortium of scientific and administrative libraries in Austria.

Mag. Wolfgang Hamedinger, Managing Director at OBVSG, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"At the Austrian Library Network, we share Open Knowledge Maps’ commitment to support and empower researchers and library users in finding, exploring, discovering and structuring the most relevant sources for their work. As a cataloguing and discovery systems provider and central library network agency, we enable institutions and librarians in providing services required to achieve this shared goal. In this capacity, it is an honour to support Open Knowledge Maps in their mission to provide innovative and exciting ways of navigating research and sharing knowledge." Mag. Wolfgang Hamedinger, Managing Director, Austrian Library Network and Service Ltd (OBVSG)

We warmly welcome OBVSG and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about OBVSG

26 January 2022

New supporting member: Knowledge Futures

We are delighted to announce that Knowledge Futures (KF) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member.

Knowledge Futures Group is a 501c3 nonprofit building open source technology and collaborating with communities of practice to design and build the public digital infrastructure needed for effective, equitable, and sustainable knowledge futures. KF is the first US institution joining Open Knowledge Maps.

Travis Rich, Executive Director of Knowledge Futures, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"As a fellow infrastructure builder, we're excited to join Open Knowledge Maps to support the development of more open, sustainable tools that help push the boundaries of what open science means beyond the status quo." Travis Rich, Executive Director, Knowledge Futures

We warmly welcome Knowledge Futures and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about Knowledge Futures

18 January 2022

New supporting member: German National Library

We are delighted to announce that the German National Library (DNB) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. The DNB is Germany's central archival library for all text, image and audio publications issued in Germany since 1913. They are the first national library joining Open Knowledge Maps.

The DNB see themselves as a scientific, educational and cultural institution. They are open to the general public and offer their guests a varied programme of exhibitions, events, guided tours and educational services.

Frank Scholze, Director General of the German National Library, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"The German National Library strongly believes in making knowledge accessible to the public and in supporting research and education to the very best of our abilities. Our aim is to offer a multitude of possibilities to explore and experience our vast collections to cater to different user needs and preferences. We are therefore very much looking forward to supporting and working with Open Knowledge Maps to help develop and build new and innovative ways to discover open online publications and resources." Frank Scholze, Director General, German National Library

We warmly welcome the German National Library and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about DNB

14 December 2021

New supporting member: University of St. Gallen

We are delighted to announce that the University of St. Gallen (HSG) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. As a leading business university, HSG sets global standards for research and teaching by promoting integrative thought, responsible action and an entrepreneurial spirit of innovation in business and society. They are the third Swiss university joining us with a Sustaining Membership.

The university’s research platform Alexandria is open to the public and integrates research publications, projects and also the researchers profiles in one place. The goal is to make the university’s research visible to everybody for the benefit of all.

Ruedi Lindegger, Group leader of Research Services at the University of St. Gallen, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"We're happy to join Open Knowledge Maps to give researchers and the interested public more possibilities to explore research results in a new, innovative way. Looking forward to sharing these possibilities in our new research platform based on DSpace soon." Ruedi Lindegger, Group leader of Research Services, Vice President's Board Research & Faculty, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

We warmly welcome the University of St. Gallen and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about HSG’s Alexandria

30 November 2021

Five years! Thank you for helping us grow

It’s time to celebrate! This year Open Knowledge Maps turns five. Since its foundation in 2016, our non-profit organization has grown, and many people - including you - have contributed to this incredible success story.

So how did we become the largest visual discovery service for research? Let’s take a look at some of our highlights - with a big announcement at the end.

11,000 users on the first day

Our journey to revolutionize discovery began with a group of nine volunteers, who had a vision and a working prototype. On 11 May 2016, we nervously pressed the button to launch the first version of Open Knowledge Maps. To our surprise we went viral instantly. 11,000 people were already using our tool on the very first day! What a great momentum to continue on.

Together we change the way we discover research

Our mission to offer an open alternative to the outdated commercial discovery systems resonated deeply with the community. Over the next five years, we improved our service considerably and we took on a variety of funded projects. Our community grew and many of you offered your help. In 2016, we welcomed our first advisors and partners. In 2018, we established our first Enthusiasts program and in 2019, our first supporting members joined us.

Community is at the core of Open Knowledge Maps: we are both community-owned and community-driven. Your support was critical in transforming a pure volunteer team into an organisation with staff and a permanent office in Vienna.

Where we are today

Today, we offer users to search within 270 million documents via BASE. We have recorded more than 1.3 million visits on our website, and more than 600,000 maps were created. Fourteen organizations have already joined us as supporting members - and more will be announced soon.

Our achievements did not go unnoticed. We were featured in more than 100 publication venues and events, including Nature, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the EOSC Symposium, and we were awarded the Austrian Prize for Free Knowledge and the Austrian Open Source award. We are actively contributing to the European Open Science Cloud as a project partner in TRIPLE and as coordinator of the GO FAIR Implementation Network on Data Discovery.

Say hello to Open Knowledge Maps 1.0 🎉

With all the achievements of the past five years, including substantial improvements to our platform, we are ready to remove the beta label from Open Knowledge Maps. We are excited to announce the official release of version 1.0! Head over to our search and let us know what you think.

Thank you for using and supporting Open Knowledge Maps. We look forward to a bright future and to continuing this exciting journey with all of you.

Try out OKMaps 1.0

2 November 2021

New supporting member: University of Lausanne

We are delighted to announce that the University of Lausanne (UNIL) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. They are the second Swiss university joining us with a Sustaining Membership.

The University of Lausanne is a place of freedom, creativity and responsibility. UNIL has chosen to tackle our time’s challenges by focusing on the Human and the Living in their natural and social environments with the aim of promoting a spirit of collaboration across the usual topical and scientific boundaries.

Dr. Micaela Crespo, Open Access Coordinator at UNIL, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"The University of Lausanne considers knowledge to be a public good. It intends to make it available to society in order to address the major issues of our time in all their complexity. Open Knowledge Maps is the perfect opportunity to enhance the way we communicate and broadcast the knowledge generated at our institution with the world." Dr. Micaela Crespo, Open Access Coordinator UNIL, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland

We warmly welcome the University of Lausanne and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about University of Lausanne

12 October 2021

New supporting member: University of Neuchâtel

We are delighted to announce that the University of Neuchâtel has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. The University of Neuchâtel (UniNE) is located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland between Geneva, Bern and Zurich. They are the third Swiss university joining Open Knowledge Maps.

With a stunning backdrop provided by the lake and the Alps beyond, University of Neuchâtel hosts more than 4000 students, with 42% coming from other Swiss cantons and 22% from abroad. The university’s modest size sets it apart from the crowd. Its students benefit from easy access to teaching staff and research teams, and its friendly atmosphere promotes the free exchange of ideas.

Laurent Gobat, Head of academic information and libraries, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"As a picture is worth a thousand words, the Open Knowledge Maps are probably the best way to discover new scientific knowledge. There is no way we could have missed such a great opportunity!" Laurent Gobat, Head of academic information and libraries, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland

We warmly welcome the University of Neuchâtel and kindly invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about University of Neuchatel

6 October 2021

Meet our brand-new line of institutional services

We are thrilled to announce our services for organizations, the Custom Services! The Custom Services enable you to embed Open Knowledge Maps services in your own discovery systems and provide attractive, visual entry points to your holdings. Our services can be used to complement existing discovery systems or to make the contents of a specific collection more visible.

What do they offer? The Custom Services can be integrated with library catalogues, research data management systems, or other digital services - e.g. news pages or current research information systems (CRIS). In a nutshell, our Custom Services provide:

• Higher visibility and discoverability of your organization’s research output,
• Enhanced institutional discovery options with visual components, and
• An intuitive search experience that helps attract new audiences and users.

How do they work? The Custom Services are developed as cloud components. Their implementation requires only little resources on your side. You can set individual parameters, including the ability to restrict knowledge maps to your own data sources.

For more information and real-life use cases developed together with ETH Zurich and TU Wien, please see our presentation.

How much do they cost? As everything created by Open Knowledge Maps the Custom Services are provided as an open infrastructure! There are no license fees and no lock-in effects.

To sustain this community-owned and community-driven infrastructure, the development of all of our services is funded in a collective effort. By becoming a supporting member, research organisations and libraries are invited to co-create the platform with us.

How do I become a supporting member? Find all information on our website.

Eager to shape the future of Open Knowledge Maps and the Custom Services? Become a supporting member today and take advantage of our early-mover discount until 01.12.2021!

Join us

8 September 2021

Introducing our new membership fee model

Did you know that Open Knowledge Maps is a charitable non-profit organization? Our mission is to create a public good: our open source research discovery services. To be able to provide all our services for free, we heavily rely on the financial support of our community. That’s why in 2019 we introduced our supporting membership scheme, which was developed in close collaboration with the community. We propose to fund Open Knowledge Maps in a collective effort: organizations become supporting members and provide a yearly contribution. In return, our supporting members are invited to co-create the platform with us. This way, we hope to finance development, community support, and hosting of Open Knowledge Maps long into the future.

When we introduced our membership scheme it was praised for its clarity and transparency. Since then, we also received valuable feedback from our community on how to improve it. As a result, today, we are excited to introduce a new and improved fee model. The new model is more equitable and inclusive: it retains three easily distinguishable membership categories but introduces additional fee levels for each category. Lower fee levels make it easier for smaller institutions and organizations from lower and middle income countries to join us. The newly introduced membership fees for large organizations from high income countries balance out the total funding and guarantee sustainable financing of our services.

Eager to support our open discovery platform? Take advantage of our special discount for early movers and join other renowned supporting members such as ETH Zurich, University of Vienna and ZBW. More information is available on our website.

Become a supporting member until 1 December 2021 and save up to 35% on your membership fees!

Join now

19 July 2021

New supporting member: Frontiers

We are delighted to announce that Frontiers has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. Frontiers is an award-winning open science platform and leading open access scholarly publisher. They are the first publisher joining Open Knowledge Maps in the category "Sustaining Member".

Frontiers’ mission is to make research results openly available to the world, thereby accelerating scientific and technological innovation, societal progress, and economic growth. The publisher empowers scientists with innovative open science solutions that radically improve how science is published, evaluated, and disseminated. Access to research results and data is open, free, and customized through Internet technology, thereby enabling rapid solutions to the critical challenges we face as humanity.

Frederick Fenter, Chief Executive Editor at Frontiers, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"The work done by Open Knowledge Maps resonates with Frontiers' mission to make science open and available freely to everyone. We are committed to supporting organizations that develop innovative knowledge tools offering better insight into the research published by the scientific community." Frederick Fenter, Ph.D., Chief Executive Editor, Frontiers

We warmly welcome Frontiers and we invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. Find out more about the supporting membership program.

More about Frontiers

14 June 2021

Milestone achieved! Our user interface is now future-proof

If you have been using Open Knowledge Maps over the past eight months, you were working with software that was undergoing major changes. Chances are that you didn’t even notice. What was going on, and how did we manage to pull this off?

Before we can answer these questions, we need to go back in time. When we launched Open Knowledge Maps in 2016, it was quickly recognized as a powerful new interface for research discovery. We soon had a lot of users, many more than we had anticipated. At that time, however, the underlying software was still a prototype. In housing terms, it could be compared to a luxury shed. Over the years we added many new rooms and functions and turned our shed into a house.

But we had a problem: every new extension jeopardized the structural integrity of the house. As time went on, it became clear that we could not bring our service to the next level in the existing configuration. As a result, we decided to create a new foundation for our house and rebuild every room. In software terms, our plan was to perform a rewrite of our frontend.

However, software rewrites are notoriously difficult to pull off, and we knew that there were many hurdles along the way. We therefore needed a strong partner for this project.

Enter the eLife Innovation Initiative. Much to our delight, eLife decided to partner with us and provide crucial funding and support for our endeavour. Thanks to our incredible project team and and a nifty software rewrite approach, we were able to successfully achieve this major milestone, without any disruptions to our users.

Curious to find out more about our journey and the development process? Read our blog post published on the eLife Innovation blog.

With the refactoring of our frontend completed, we now have achieved the technical foundation to “raise the roof” of our house - in other words, to implement new features that we have promised in our roadmap.

Now, an even bigger challenge awaits. In order to realize our roadmap, we need to secure enough funding to implement the next development goals. This includes a model for custom services where institutions can include Open Knowledge Maps visualizations as cloud components in their own offering. More news on this exciting development will follow soon! To fund and sustain this infrastructure, organisations can become supporting members of Open Knowledge Maps and provide an annual contribution.

Get your organization involved

26 May 2021

Project “Ideenbox” collects health issues from citizens in Austria

We are thrilled to announce that Open Knowledge Maps has joined forces with LBG Open Innovation in Science Center (OIS Center) for another exciting project. In this crowd-sourcing project called Ideenbox (in English: Ideas Box), we collect unsolved health issues from citizens based in Austria. Their input will contribute to finding current blind spots in research and to identify important topics for future research.

The crowd-sourcing has already started online. You can provide your ideas in German language via the OIS Center website until spring next year. We invite you to submit your everyday health problems or your personal observations of illnesses. From September 2021, you can also provide your input through dedicated physical boxes placed in publicly accessible spaces such as museums, libraries and other cultural spaces. Open Knowledge Maps will be responsible for providing an instant overview of all collected research questions through a knowledge map. The knowledge map will be made publicly available and it will periodically be updated to show the latest crowd-sourcing results. It will be used to inspire ideas to solve the described challenges with citizens, stakeholders and researchers in co-creation workshops.

With this joint project, Open Knowledge Maps and LBG OIS Center take a further step to facilitate knowledge transfer between society and research. The LBG OIS Center is a leading institution for investigating and experimenting with open innovation principles and methods in science. As an OKMaps supporting member, the LBG OIS Center supports our activities to improve the visibility of scientific knowledge to researchers, practitioners, and the public. We are excited to provide the means for making the Ideas Box results openly available and explorable.

Are you interested to get involved?

Submit your idea

18 May 2021

New supporting member: University Library of Southern Denmark

We are delighted to announce that the University Library of Southern Denmark (SDU) has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. The SDU Library supports the university’s knowledge exchange with the surrounding society - for research, education, and learning at the highest academic level.

SDU Library is Open Knowledge Maps' first supporting member outside of German-speaking Europe. As a regional research and education library, the library ensures that the physical and digital services relating to the production, storage and communication of scientific knowledge are developed constantly for and with the university and its partners – across both geography and academia.

Bertil F. Dorch, SDU Library Director, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"It is a pleasure for us to contribute to Open Knowledge Maps sustainability and we believe that OKMaps is presenting an ambitious and attainable set of goals to support the research output which make open access materials widely discoverable for library patrons. The University Library of Southern Denmark is delighted to support and collaborate with the world´s largest visual search engine which improves the integrity of the scientific and scholarly records." Bertil F. Dorch, Associate Professor, Library Director, The University of Southern Denmark

We warmly welcome SDU Library and we invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. For more information about the supporting membership program, please click here.

More about SDU

4 March 2021

New paper out: "Discoverability in (a) Crisis"

In today’s world, we face many challenges such as climate change, the spread of infectious diseases, and global inequality. If we want to effectively tackle these complex issues, various stakeholders around the world have to work together. To do so, we need the ability to discover relevant research and to build on each other’s knowledge.

But this much-needed collaboration is currently at stake due to a crisis in discoverability. With three million publications per year as well as many new output formats (e.g. datasets, preprints, and source code), discoverability of scientific knowledge has become a challenge in itself. The on-going pandemic made this problem even more evident. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus we have witnessed an explosion of scientific publications and data related to it, and researchers struggle to stay on top of this knowledge.

Current proprietary discovery systems are not able to address the discoverability crisis appropriately because they lack innovation. Features like visualizations, recommendations, and semantic search that we are used to from other parts of our daily lives are not available to academics in these systems. This is where Open Knowledge Maps comes into play. The open and community-driven infrastructure takes on the discoverability crisis challenge by providing gamechanging services. Open Knowledge Maps’ search engine enables researchers, students, and practitioners to quickly identify relevant resources by creating knowledge maps. Instead of long, unstructured lists, it creates rich visual overviews of research topics. The infrastructure builds on library content and dramatically increases their visibility and discoverability. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, Open Knowledge Maps has teamed up with ReFigure to address the specific discovery needs of scientists developing therapeutics and vaccines for COVID-19. Together, we have launched CoVis, a curated knowledge map of seminal biomedical research works on COVID-19.

Open Knowledge Maps is part of the open discovery infrastructure, which provides many new and unique tools that go far beyond the functionality of traditional search engines. Open infrastructures also have many advantages that are particularly relevant to research organisations and libraries. They follow open standards and use open licenses for software, data and content, which facilitates migration between systems and avoid lock-in effects of closed offerings. Today, the open discovery infrastructure is the strongest driver for innovation in discovery.

The establishment of the open discovery infrastructure is an important step towards overcoming the discoverability crisis. However, to provide adequate discovery for research and all its stakeholders in societies around the world, further effort is needed. We have proposed four key actions that are necessary from our point of view. Eager to find out more?

Read our recently published paper

6 October 2020

Open Knowledge Maps welcomes its 10th supporting member: Die Angewandte

We are delighted to announce that Die Angewandte - University of Applied Arts Vienna has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. With this addition, our supporting membership program has now grown to ten members.

About Die Angewandte: Like every university, the activities of the Angewandte rest upon its core competence in research and teaching. As a university of art, the transdisciplinary and creative exploration of our complex world is at the top of the agenda. The task of research is to define key thematic points in response to current challenges in society, e.g. questions of digitisation, to design work processes open towards society, and to actively and resolutely anchor the results in change-oriented public discourse.

As our newest member in the category "Supporting Member", Die Angewandte supports the maintenance of Open Knowledge Maps. Florian Bettel, Senior Scientist at die Angewandte, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"Die Angewandte shares and supports the core principles of Open Knowledge Maps in particular with regards to open science, user-centred design, and open source. With base Angewandte, the Angewandte operates an innovative software project that is dedicated to these principles. Part of this development is the third-party funded project “Portfolio/Showroom—Making Art Research Accessible”, which is operated jointly with other Austrian universities and non-university research institutions. The aim is to expand the resulting current research information system with Open Knowledge Maps to include additional functions and to better share our research with the community." Dr. Florian Bettel, Senior Scientist at the Department of Cultural Studies, die Angewandte

We warmly welcome Die Angewandte and we invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. For more information about the supporting membership program, please click here.

More about Die Angewandte

14 September 2020

New supporting member: ETH Library

We are delighted to announce that ETH Library has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. The ETH Library promotes knowledge, enables information work in research and teaching and makes the world of yesterday, today and tomorrow more comprehensible to its customers.

ETH Library is Open Knowledge Maps' second member in the category "Sustaining Member" and thus supports the maintenance, but also the further development of Open Knowledge Maps.

David Johann, Head of Group Knowledge Management of ETH Library, outlines the reasons for becoming a member:

"We joined Open Knowledge Maps as a Supporting Member because it is an innovative tool for literature search and we are eager to support the further development of Open Knowledge Maps. Our long-term goal is to integrate Open Knowledge Maps into the ETH-Library as a way to search for relevant scientific literature." Dr. David Johann, Head of Group Knowledge Management, ETH Library, ETH Zurich

We warmly welcome ETH Library and we invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. For more information about the supporting membership program, please click here.

More about ETH Library

23 July 2020

New supporting member: TU Wien Bibliothek

We are delighted to announce that TU Wien Bibliothek has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. TU Wien Bibliothek is Austria's largest library in science and engineering and acts an incubator for sustainable digital infrastructures. As a strategic priority, fostering open science forms part of all of TU Wien Bibliothek's activities.

TU Wien Bibliothek is Open Knowledge Maps' first member in the category "Sustaining Member" and thus supports the maintenance, but also the further development of Open Knowledge Maps.

Beate Guba, Director of TU Wien Bibliothek, says:

"We are delighted to announce our new partnership with Open Knowledge Maps. We share the common goal of enhancing the visibility of research results beyond disciplinary boundaries and thus contributing to knowledge generation." Mag. Beate Guba, MSc., Library Director, TU Wien Bibliothek

We warmly welcome TU Wien Bibliothek and we invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. For more information about the supporting membership program, please click here.

More about TU Wien Bibliothek

23 June 2020

Announcing CoVis - a new tool to discover reliable COVID-19 research

For the development of therapeutics and vaccines for COVID-19, scientists depend on valid knowledge on the coronavirus. But finding reliable research results is often difficult: with over 20,000 papers published on the topic, scientists spend a lot of valuable time reviewing the literature.

Today, we are excited to announce the release of CoVis: a curated knowledge map of seminal works on COVID-19. Developed in collaboration with our partner ReFigure, CoVis provides a quick overview of research articles from eight particularly relevant areas of biomedical research. When key issues are not answered by a single research source, data and images from multiple sources are compiled into a visual dashboard called a ReFigure.

CoVis makes it easier to get started on the topic - but also helps you to stay up-to-date. In order to do justice to the rapid development of COVID-19 research, the database is extended regularly by a dedicated team of curators led by immunologists and ReFigure founders Dr. Girija Goyal and Dr. James Akin. We are also inviting subject-matter experts to contribute to CoVis. Find out more about the contribution process here.

The tool is financially supported by the EU project EOSC Secretariat as part of the COVID-19 Fast-Track Funding. For further information, please see the full press release. As always, we look forward to your input and feedback!

Try out CoVis

9 June 2020

New supporting member: TU Graz Library

We are delighted to announce that TU Graz Library has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member. TU Graz Library is a knowledge repository, a place of learning and a modern service department of TU Graz. It is open to the public and supports its users in their research, teaching and studies.

Ulrike Krießmann, Head of TU Graz Library, says:

"We share a commitment with Open Knowledge Maps to open up science and transfer knowledge beyond academia. As a longstanding innovator in digital librarianship, as shown by initiatives like the Digital TU Graz project, we are proud to support one of the most forward-thinking open infrastructures in scholarly communication." Mag. Dr. Ulrike Krießmann, Head of Library and Archive, Graz University of Technology

We warmly welcome TU Graz Library and we invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. For more information about the supporting membership program, please click here.

More about TU Graz Library

18 May 2020

Call for Contributions: "Overcoming the Discoverability Crisis"

Covid-19 has exposed a host of issues with the current scholarly communication system, also with regard to the discoverability of scientific knowledge. Many research groups have pivoted to coronavirus research without prior experience or adequate preparation. They were immediately confronted with having to identify relevant knowledge from unfamiliar (sub-)disciplines, while needing to keep up with the rapid growth of data and publications. Both challenges currently pose big problems for researchers, leading to delays, duplicated work, and findings that are based on questionable results. Observing the many shortcomings of discovery workflows in the course of Covid-19 confirms that discoverability itself is in crisis.

That’s why Open Knowledge Maps and Refigure are hosting an Open Publishing Fest session entitled “Overcoming the discoverability crisis”. On May 27th at 10:00 EDT (=16:00 CEST, 21:00 WIB), we want to discuss the issues and challenges, but also highlight various discovery approaches that have emerged in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic (or already before). In particular, we want to showcase the potential of open infrastructures for the development of innovative discovery solutions.

The two-hour online event will be divided into three sections: we will kick off with reports from researchers, librarians and practitioners on real-life discovery workflows in the Covid-19 pandemic and the problems associated with it. Second, we invite open infrastructures and open source toolmakers to present potential solutions. Third, we will host a discussion on what is needed from a systemic point of view to overcoming the discoverability crisis.

We invite contributions to all three parts. Those interested in either

• (1) giving a report on current discovery workflows,
• (2) presenting a tool or infrastructure, or
• (3) giving a short input on the systemic problems of discovery,

please send a brief outline on the proposed contribution to Peter Kraker (pkraker@openknowledgemaps.org) until May 22nd.

Depending on the number of interested contributors, we may have to cap the number of presentations at a certain point. We will, however, provide a collaborative document where everyone can give their input. For more information on the event, please visit https://openpublishingfest.org/calendar.html#event-178. The link to the video conference will be announced there in due course.

Find out more about the event

20 April 2020

Meet our 2020 enthusiasts

We are happy to announce that our enthusiasts program continues. Please welcome with us this year’s participants: Nancy Kwangwa, Daniel Deogratus, Paloma Marín Arraiza, Hamdan Hidayat and Serdar Balci.

The enthusiasts will give workshops or webinars on Open Knowledge Maps and also collect feedback from their respective research communities. In this iteration, we are covering the following countries for the very first time: Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Brazil, and Turkey. And we are going to Indonesia again!

In light of COVID-19, we have extended the time frame for the program and we will support our enthusiasts in hosting online formats such as webinars.

In addition to their role as ambassadors, the enthusiasts provide translations for our training materials and innovative use cases of our software (see for example this coronavirus map by Serdar Balci). Find out more about our enthusiasts and the program itself here: https://openknowledgemaps.org/community

Would you like to join our enthusiasts program in 2021? Don’t hesitate to send a message to our community coordinator Michela at mvignoli@openknowledgemaps.org.

Become an enthusiast

2 April 2020

New supporting member: Vienna University Library

We are delighted to announce that Vienna University Library (VUL), Austria's largest library and the oldest university library in the German-speaking area, has joined Open Knowledge Maps as a supporting member.

Brigitte Kromp, Head of Central Library for Physics and Chemistry at VUL, says:

"The Vienna University Library is a long-standing advocate of Open Access and Open Science among University affiliates, but also nationally and globally. In order to provide the best possible services in these areas, we deem it absolutely critical to support innovative and visionary infrastructures such as arXiv, the DOAJ, OLH and now Open Knowledge Maps. We are delighted to be able to contribute to Open Knowledge Maps' sustainability, and, thusly, to its long-term independence." HR Mag. Brigitte Kromp, Head of Central Library for Physics and Chemistry, Vienna University Library

VUL joins a growing list of organisations in the Open Knowledge Maps supporting membership program, a model to sustain the world's largest visual search engine for research. Supporting members provide a yearly contribution and in return, they are invited to co-create the platform with us. In an annual crowdsourcing process, they have one third of the vote on what features and sources are implemented on Open Knowledge Maps.

We warmly welcome VUL and we invite further organisations to join and shape the future of discovery together with us. For more information about the supporting membership program, please click here.

More about Vienna University Library

31 March 2020

COVID-19 update

Open Knowledge Maps continues its work during the pandemic, albeit in a fully remote setting and at lower capacity to accommodate the needs of our team members in these trying times.

Our enthusiast Serdar Balci has created a great PubMed query to find research related to COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 and 2019-nCoV. Check out his query and the resulting map here. If you are looking to stay on top of the latest research, you can use the same query with the "most recent" option (see here for an example).

Should you have any specific needs with respect to your research on the coronavirus, we encourage you to get in touch. The Open Knowledge Maps team wishes you all good health during this pandemic ❤️ #StayStrong

Check out the map

11 March 2020

Job opportunity: Frontend developer (f/x/m) in Vienna

Open Knowledge Maps is currently looking for a frontend developer. If you know your way around reactive JavaScript frameworks and are interested in a position where your work positively affects people all around the world, then this job might be for you! This is a fixed-term, entry-level position for 20 hours/week in the Open Knowledge Maps office in Vienna.

Open Knowledge Maps is a young and growing nonprofit organization in the field of scientific knowledge discovery. We are building a visual interface that dramatically increases the visibility of research findings for science and society alike.

For more information, please see the full job ad.

Check out the full job ad

26 February 2020

Announcing a new partnership with eLife

We are excited to announce a new partnership with eLife to improve our technology platform. With eLife's backing, we will perform a necessary refactoring of the Open Knowledge Maps frontend.

The refactoring will improve the serviceability, reusability and structure of our frontend. The aim is to make it easier to introduce new functionality crucial to fulfilling important use cases, such as integrating Open Knowledge Maps into user workflows, enabling future integrations (e.g. of dataset indices), and reaching our goal of a collaborative discovery environment.

This is the latest collaboration under eLife's Innovation Initiative, aimed at supporting open-source projects in the research discovery and communication space. eLife and Open Knowledge Maps have come together through a common commitment to speed up research dissemination and curation.

"We are proud to be able to endorse an organisation whose ethos encompasses our core values of openness, collaboration and reuse," says Emmy Tsang, eLife Innovation Community Manager. "We understand the importance of open-source project maintenance, as well as the lack of funding and support in this area, and are excited to contribute to the continuity of this innovative initiative. It will be great to work with the Open Knowledge Maps team and exchange ideas on the use of machine-learning and web technologies to drive forward research discovery, sharing and consumption."

"We're very excited to have eLife’s support for this project," adds Peter Kraker, Founder and Chairman of Open Knowledge Maps. "This work is crucial for implementing new features, which is in turn important for the success of our supporting membership program. eLife’s backing gives us a unique opportunity to improve our growth and sustainability that might have been difficult to come by elsewhere."

More insight into the refactoring project can be found in the accompanying blog post on eLife Labs. As part of this project, we are currently looking for a UX-minded frontend developer (f/x/m) to join our team in Vienna. For more information, please see our job advert.

Read the press release

21 February 2020

Membership spotlight: Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft

This is the final part of our five-part series where we give the floor to representatives of our initial supporting members to introduce their institutions and to tell us why they chose to support Open Knowledge Maps.

Today, it's Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft:

"The LBG OIS Center is an international hub for investigating and experimenting with open research practices. The LBG OIS Center generates and disseminates insights into the use of Open Innovation principles and methods in science, along the entire process to originate new scientific research. As a visual interface to the world's scientific knowledge, Open Knowledge Maps opens up science in a unique way to researchers as well as to practitioners and the public. We are proud to be a supporting member of Open Knowledge Maps." Mag. Patrick Lehner, Director OIS Center, Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft

For more information about our supporting membership program, please click here

More about LBG

20 February 2020

Membership spotlight: Copernicus Publications

This is part four of a five-part series where we give the floor to representatives of our initial supporting members to introduce their institutions and to tell us why they chose to support Open Knowledge Maps.

Today, it's Copernicus Publications:

"Copernicus Publications has been publishing open-access journals since 2001. Among many others, one advantage of open access is increased the visibility and discoverability of the published works. As a truly open discovery tool, Open Knowledge Maps revolutionize the way scientific knowledge can be revealed. We are very happy to support this great endeavour." Dr. Xenia van Edig, Senior Business Development, Copernicus Publications

For more information about our supporting membership program, please click here

More about Copernicus Publications

19 February 2020

Membership spotlight: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

This is part three of a five-part series where we give the floor to representatives of our initial supporting members to introduce their institutions and to tell us why they chose to support Open Knowledge Maps.

Today, it's Academy of Fine Arts Vienna:

"The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 by the court painter Peter Strudel as a private academy and is considered to be the oldest art school in Central Europe. Since 2015 the Academy has an explicit commitment to the promotion of Openness in the Arts & Sciences, whereas the main focus is on supporting community-led Open Science infrastructures and services (OSIS) and helping to create a truly open and inclusive Scholarly Communication ecosystem in the near future, and Open Knowledge Maps is one of these initiatives. On the one side the Open Science/Open Scholarship movement has increased the accessibility of academic knowledge, but on the other hand there is a discoverability crisis that in a lot of cases negatively affects Scholarly Communication. Open Knowledge Maps intends to close this gap and that's why it deserves to be supported with our best efforts." Mag. MSc. Andreas Ferus, Interim Library Director, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

For more information about our supporting membership program, please click here

More about AKBild

18 February 2020

Membership spotlight: ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

This is part two of a five-part series where we give the floor to representatives of our initial supporting members to introduce their institutions and to tell us why they chose to support Open Knowledge Maps.

Today, it's ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics:

"As one of the world's largest information infrastructures for scientific literature in economics, ZBW has a clear commitment to openness, e.g. to open access, open source, open/fair data. To promote the openness movement we also engage in relevant open science initiatives and help them to ensure their sustainability. Open Knowledge Maps is one of these initiatives we consider to be a visionary innovator in the field of discovery in open spaces. We are proud to be a member of this initiative and support it with our best efforts." Prof. Dr. Klaus Tochtermann, Director, ZBW

For more information about our supporting membership program, please click here

More about ZBW

17 February 2020

Membership spotlight: University Library Bern

This is part one of a five-part series where we give the floor to representatives of our initial supporting members to introduce their institutions and to tell us why they chose to support Open Knowledge Maps.

Today, it's University Library Bern:

"The University Library of Bern (UB Bern) supports research, teaching and education at the University of Bern. We guarantee the open and sustainable access to scholarly information. Open Knowledge Maps is a considerable reinforcement in the areas of open science and open access, which are central to our research services." Dr. Andrea Hacker, Open Access and Bern Open Publishing (BOP), University Library Bern

For more information about our supporting membership program, please click here

More about University Library Bern

29 January 2020

Open Knowledge Maps welcomes new supporting members

We are excited to announce that our supporting membership program has grown to five organisations. We welcome University Library Bern in the category "Sustaining Member PLUS" as well as Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Copernicus Publications and ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics in the category "Supporting Member". Together with Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft, who joined us at the beginning of 2019, this group represents five trailblazers establishing this promising path to sustainability with us.

The supporting membership program is a model to sustain Open Knowledge Maps, the world’s largest visual search engine for research. Supporting members provide a yearly contribution and in return, they are invited to co-create the platform with us. In an annual crowdsourcing process, they have one third of the vote on what features and sources are implemented on Open Knowledge Maps.

Why they joined us

We asked our members to briefly explain why they support us. We will publish their full statements in a series of supporting member spotlights in the upcoming weeks. But here's already a sneak peek of what they said (emphasis ours):

"Open Knowledge Maps is a considerable reinforcement in the areas of open science and open access, which are central to our research services." Dr. Andrea Hacker, Open Access and Bern Open Publishing (BOP), University Library Bern

"Open Knowledge Maps is one of these initiatives we consider to be a visionary innovator in the field of discovery in open spaces." Prof. Dr. Klaus Tochtermann, Director, ZBW

"On the one side the Open Science/Open Scholarship movement has increased the accessibility of academic knowledge, but on the other hand there is a discoverability crisis that in a lot of cases negatively affects Scholarly Communication. Open Knowledge Maps intends to close this gap and that's why it deserves to be supported with our best efforts." Mag. MSc. Andreas Ferus, Interim Library Director, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

"As a truly open discovery tool, Open Knowledge Maps revolutionize the way scientific knowledge can be revealed." Dr. Xenia van Edig, Senior Business Development, Copernicus Publications

"Open Knowledge Maps opens up science in a unique way to researchers as well as to practitioners and the public." Mag. Patrick Lehner, Director OIS Center, Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft

How to become a member

Are you interested to become a member as well? We invite further organisations to join us and shape the future of discovery together with us. Click on the button below to find out more.

Learn more about the membership

27 January 2020

Open Knowledge Maps wins Austrian Prize for Free Knowledge

We are delighted to announce that Open Knowledge Maps has won the Austrian Prize for Free Knowledge of Wikimedia Austria in the category civic engagement. The prize is awarded to individuals and organisations that make outstanding contributions to free knowledge. In their rationale, the jury appreciated Open Knowledge Maps for making scientific knowledge better discoverable and more reusable - also for those who are not employed at an academic institution.

The prize was awarded by Wikimedia Austria on January 25th at the Vienna Ball of Sciences in attendance of the Mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, and the Austrian Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology, Leonore Gewessler. Our fellow prize winners are also strongly related to open science: the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), one of the most progressive funding organisations when it comes to open science (organisation of the year), and early open access pioneer Hermann Maurer (lifetime achievement prize).

We are honored to be recognized with this prize. We want to thank our team and community for their hard work and for their continued support. Without you, none of this would be possible. We are very happy and thankful to have you with us!

More about the Prize (in German)

18 December 2019

What's next for Open Knowledge Maps?

It’s been a busy year at Open Knowledge Maps! We made two major updates to our software that led to a considerable increase in user engagement. We launched our supporting membership model and we initiated the GO FAIR Discovery network. We continued our Enthusiasts program and we developed a new workshop format to help researchers improve the visibility of their research online - and so much more.

We also realized that our roadmap doesn’t reflect the complexity of Open Knowledge Maps’ vision any longer. We have grown as an organisation and improved our services considerably since we last updated the document in 2017.

Following a complete overhaul of our roadmap, we are now happy to announce the new and improved version. As always, the feedback from our community was front and center when considering what’s coming next for Open Knowledge Maps.

Let’s take a look at some of the highlights:

Firstly, better connect OKMaps to the services you already use and love:

• Enable exporting citations to Zotero
• Include links to additional open access copies (via unpaywall)
• Include Open Access Button for papers you still can’t access
• Include the DOAJ Seal of Approval and links to ORCiDs

These features will improve access to research documents, provide more context to individual outputs and better integrate Open Knowledge Maps into your discovery workflow.

Secondly, improve our capabilities for data discovery: Our role as lead in the GO FAIR Implementation Network "Discovery" puts us in a unique position to work closely with the community on better solutions for discovering data sets.

And finally: We are going to improve our financial, technical and organisational sustainability. We will provide access to our underlying data sets and continue our community, training & networking activities.

Thank you for your continued support and please let us know what you think of our new roadmap via email, Twitter or Github. And if you would like to help us financially in achieving our goals, consider making a donation.

Check out our roadmap

08 October 2019

Open Knowledge Maps participates in EU project TRIPLE

We are excited to announce that we are part of TRIPLE, an EU project funded under the Horizon 2020 framework. TRIPLE's goal is to create a comprehensive free and open discovery solution for the social sciences and humanities (SSH). Under the lead of Huma-Num (CNRS), a consortium of 18 partners from 12 countries will develop TRIPLE as a core service of OPERAS and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). Starting this month, TRIPLE will run for 3.5 years.

Open Knowledge Maps will provide the textual and visual search components of the platform. We are excited to contribute to a project that will enable better discovery for disciplines that are usually neglected by mainstream discovery tools. TRIPLE will also benefit our users from all disciplines, as features developed in the project will also be included on openknowledgemaps.org.

Find out more about TRIPLE

08 October 2019

Welcome to our new partner Scientific Knowledge Services

At Open Knowledge Maps, we strive to foster and grow our community. We are therefore excited to announce a partnership with Scientific Knowledge Services (SKS), the European service provider for research and research support organizations. We collaborate with SKS to raise awareness for discovery infrastructures for open science and to highlight the importance of investing in their future. SKS becomes official membership recruitment partner of Open Knowledge Maps and will support us in implementing our collaborative funding model.

“We are delighted to partner with Scientific Knowledge Services. SKS are a trusted partner in the scholarly communication system, and their activities in the areas of open science and citizen science strongly align with Open Knowledge Maps' vision and goals,” says Peter Kraker, founder and chairman of Open Knowledge Maps. “At Open Knowledge Maps, we believe that everyone should be able to benefit from scientific knowledge. We are confident that the partnership with SKS will help us to grow our organization so that we can achieve this goal.”

“Open Science is a movement that reflects a magnificent cultural change in research and in society. Research activities should be discoverable across the research landscape. Open Knowledge Maps is an organization that demonstrated to have a fundamental role in increasing the visibility of research outputs and improving collaboration between researchers and institutions. They challenge the traditional discovery tools, based on SERPs (search engine results pages) and propose to create maps of knowledge that provide more comprehensive overviews. Like all nonprofit organizations, Open Knowledge Maps needs support to reach sustainability, which is yet to be found. In my opinion, such support is part of the Open Science Responsibility; to make science irreversibly open, more reliable and to leave it in good shape for our next generations. As a small company, we enter with humbleness and ambition in this partnership with Open Knowledge Maps and we invite the research community to support their efforts,” says Tiberius Ignat, the director of Scientific Knowledge Services.

Read the full press release

08 October 2019

We invite organizations to become supporting members

Open Knowledge Maps is a charitable non-profit. All of our services are free and open. There are no license fees and no lock-in effects. To provide a sustainable platform for open discovery, we propose to fund Open Knowledge Maps in a collective effort: organizations become supporting members and provide a yearly contribution. In return, our supporting members are invited to co-create the platform with us.

Have your say in the future of Open Knowledge Maps! Our supporting members are directly involved in the decision-making process by way of the Board of Supporters (BoS). The BoS provides input on the technical roadmap and has one third of the vote on what features and sources are implemented on Open Knowledge Maps. To acknowledge their contribution, members are listed on our website and in select materials.

Become a supporting member

23 May 2019

Welcome our new enthusiasts!

Our enthusiasts program continues and we are happy to announce this year's participants. The enthusiasts are power users and ambassadors from all over the world. They will give workshops on open discovery in their communities and collect feedback on how to better integrate Open Knowledge Maps into user workflows. Our new enthusiasts are from 5 different countries that we haven't covered in our previous iteration. And for the first time we are going east to Indonesia - our largest growing user base.

Please welcome with us Dasapta Erwin Irawan, Georgia Bayliss-Brown, Justin Sègbédji Ahinon, Jeannette Ekstrøm, and Marcin Stępień!

Find out more about the program

23 May 2019

Welcome to our new partner AfricArXiv

At Open Knowledge Maps, our goal is that everyone can benefit from scientific knowledge, regardless of origin and location. AfricArXiv (African Science Archive) is a free open access repository for African scientists to share their research outputs in all scientific fields. We partner with AfricArxiv to increase the visibility of African research and to help enable its discovery and reuse by researchers in Africa and around the world.

Justin Sègbédji Ahinon and Johanna Havemann, co-founders of AfricArxiv, say: "We see Open Knowledge Maps as a strong partner to advance Open Science and Open Access for African researchers and across the African continent. We look forward to collaborating with Open Knowledge Maps in joint initiatives towards accelerated discoverability of African scholars' achievements"

Learn more about AfricArXiv

23 May 2019

Available now: Training materials for our brand new workshop on Academic SEO

Earlier this year, Open Knowledge Maps founder Peter Kraker presented our new workshop on Academic SEO in a webinar for the Open Science Fellows Program of our partner Wikimedia Germany. A recording of the webinar is now available here.

The workshop focuses on improving the visibility of your research online. You'll gain a better understanding about how search engines and discovery tools work. Check out all the practical tips to finally answer the question: "How do I get my research to show up in search engines and discovery tools?"

The presentation slides, speaker notes and a short intro to Academic SEO are available on our website. You can use these materials to run your own workshops on the topic. Or get in touch if you’d like to invite us to do a webinar or workshop at your institution.

Check out the materials

14 March 2019

OKMaps founder Peter Kraker speaks at the Open Science Conference 2019

The Open Science Conference in Berlin is an international conference dedicated to the Open Science movement and provides a unique forum for a wide variety of stakeholders to discuss the present and the future of Open Science.

Open Knowledge Maps founder Peter Kraker will give an invited talk at the conference about his #DontLeaveItToGoogle campaign. Peter will show that closed and proprietary infrastructures do not only limit the accessibility of research, but also prevent discoverability. He will discuss how open source services and non-profit frontends such as Open Knowledge Maps help overcome this issue and provide continuous innovation along the research workflow.

Register for the conference now to attend the talk on March 20th at 11:20am (CET).

Check out the programme

14 March 2019

Open Knowledge Maps coordinates new network to improve research data discovery

Research data are among the fastest growing openly accessible scientific outputs on the web. Unfortunately, the discoverability of this data is seriously lacking, leaving up to 85% of datasets unused.

This is why Open Knowledge Maps has started a new implementation network (IN) that aims to change this. The main purpose of the Discovery IN is to provide open interfaces and other user-facing services for data discovery across disciplines. It brings together many well-known organisation and projects working on FAIR data (short for findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable data), including DataCite, OpenAIRE, EUDAT, OPERAS, CESSDA, BASE, CORE, ZBW, and Know-Center.

The network is part of the GO FAIR initiative, a bottom-up international approach for the practical implementation of infrastructures for FAIR data, such as the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud).

Learn more

14 March 2019

Workshop on academic literature search: "Finding and getting found" (free admission, limited capacity)

We have developed a brand new workshop to help you improving the visibility of your research online.

In this workshop you'll learn how search engines and discovery tools work and how you can use this knowledge to make your outputs more discoverable. We will give practical tips to finally answer the question: "How do I get my research to show up in search engines and discovery tools?" To round things out, we will play a fun and fast-paced game to get to know Open Knowledge Maps better and improve your personal discovery skills.

This workshop will be hosted by the working group “Open Science Trainings” of the Open Science Network Austria (OANA), Österreich forscht, and the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft. Join us in Vienna on April 26 at 10:00 (CET).

More info & RSVP here

20 February 2019

Our innovative collaboration projects

At Open Knowledge Maps, our aim is to improve the visibility of scientific knowledge. That’s why we partner with organizations that share our goals to develop innovative open science projects that make it easier for you to discover and benefit from scientific knowledge. In addition, these collaborations enable organizations to make their collections more accessible to their users.

Do you have public, openly accessible collections, but you do not know how to present these collections to your users? Or do you simply want to check out our present and past collaboration projects to find out about the cool services we have developed? Then check out our brand new project page!

View project page

20 February 2019

Welcome to our first supporting member

We are working on a membership-based funding model. In this model, organisations become supporting members of Open Knowledge Maps and provide an annual contribution. We are happy to announce that our very first supporting member, the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG), has joined us. LBG is a longtime collaborator and is now also pioneering this promising path to sustainability with us. Welcome on board!

The Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (LBG) is a research institution with a thematic focus on medicine, life sciences and the humanities, and is specifically targeting new research topics in Austria. Together with academic and implementing partners, the LBG is currently running 21 institutes and develops and tests new forms of collaboration between science and non-scientific actors such as companies, the public sector and civil society. Socially relevant challenges, to which research can contribute, are to be recognized at an early stage and taken up. The LBG Open Innovation in Science Center, which unlocks the potential of open innovation for science, and the LBG Career Center, which supports 200 PhD students and postdocs, are part of the LBG. The LBG employs 550 people.

Become a supporting member

20 February 2019

Successful donation campaign

To provide a sustainable platform for open discovery, we propose to fund Open Knowledge Maps in a collective effort. Donations are part of this plan, which is why we ran our first donation campaign last December. The results make us very happy; with the funds donated, we are able to cover our server costs for 2019. Many thanks for your contributions and all the supportive messages!

Of course, we also accept donations throughout the year.

Find out how you can support us

05 December 2018

A letter to our supporters

As a charitable non-profit, we depend on our community. Thanks to your support, Open Knowledge Maps has become the largest visual search engine for scientific knowledge in the world.

Today, we ask you for your help with our next challenge: to ensure the sustainability of this platform. This is why we are launching our very first donation campaign. It is pretty simple: If every user gave €3, we could run Open Knowledge Maps for a whole year.

With your help, we can not only keep Open Knowledge Maps online, but also develop it further. With your donation you contribute to an open, ad-free discovery service that is used by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. But we do not want to stop there: our goal is to develop Open Knowledge Maps into a collaborative system, so that we can all build on top of each others' knowledge.

We hope that you’ll consider how useful it is to be able to discover scientific knowledge. Not only for a select few, but for everyone on the planet. The price of a coffee is all it takes!

❤️ Thank you.
Peter, Maxi and Chris from the Open Knowledge Maps board.

Make a donation

23 October 2018

This #OAWeek, enable your community to discover open access content

It's Open Access Week (#OAWeek) again! What better way to celebrate than to enable your community to discover all the great open access content out there. To help you with this, we have created training materials for Open Knowledge Maps.

This includes presentations with extensive speaker notes, making it easy to introduce Open Knowledge Maps in English and Spanish. We have also put all materials for the Scientific Scavenger Hunt, our workshop concept, online. A step-by-step guide explains, how to play this fun and fast-paced game with your community.

Have fun - and share your Scavenger Hunt moments via the hashtag #okmaps with us!

Check out the materials

23 October 2018

Successful run of first Enthusiasts program

It's a wrap! We have now concluded the first iteration of our community outreach program, the Enthusiasts program - and we couldn't be happier with the results.

Together, the enthusiasts have reached more than 100 people in 6 cities on 4 continents. Not only have they helped to spread the word on open discovery and OKMaps, but they have also collected valuable feedback, which will inform the development of our next features. Many thanks to our awesome enthusiasts and to all workshop participants! And special kudos to Mari and Ricardo for the translation of our presentation materials into Spanish.

In the next iteration of the program we want to explore with you, how we can better integrate OKMaps into your workflow. Join us!

Become an enthusiast

12 July 2018

By popular request: 2 new features!

Feature 1: Embed any map in 3 easy steps!

Have you ever wanted to share a map with the readers of your blog? Reuse an OKMaps overview on your course website? Provide a collection of your favourite maps for your lab? Here’s the the good news: Now you can!

• Step 1: Click on the embed button next to a map.
• Step 2: Copy the code snippet.
• Step 3: And finally include it on your website. That’s it!

That way you can enable your colleagues and friends to get new insights into scientific knowledge!

Feature 2: Show only open access papers!

In addition, we have implemented another much requested feature: Showing only open access papers within a map. This means, you can easily find out, which papers you can read and download on Open Knowledge Maps - and get started on your research even faster!

As always, please share the good news with your network - and let us know of any feedback, bugs or ideas for improvement!

Search and embed now

12 July 2018

Our network is growing

The Open Knowledge Maps network is expanding - we now have 16 collaboration partners!

Our latest partnerships include Wikimedia Germany and their outstanding Open Science Fellows Program as well as the awesome Open Science MOOC. With both partners, we are working on trainings for open discovery and open science to enable more people to create and benefit from open scientific knowledge.

We have also partnered with longtime supporters ImpactStory on their exciting new search engine Get The Research, aimed at enabling everyone in society to benefit from scientific knowledge. In addition, we have joined JROST, the Joint Roadmap for Open Science Tools to design an open science toolchain for researchers. With both initiatives we’re working on better and better integrated tools for open discovery and open science in general.

Check out our network

16 May 2018

The Visual Project Explorer (VIPER) is here

Much of modern research is done in projects. But getting an overview of a research project can be tedious: you are often faced with outdated project websites and dozens of lengthy reports.

VIPER is here to change that - it is your guide to the world of research projects! Powered by the OpenAIRE infrastructure, VIPER enables you to get automatically created overviews of project outputs and understand their reception in different areas. You can even use VIPER as an automated dissemination page for your own projects.

Try it out now!

17 April 2018

A warm welcome to our enthusiasts

Today, we are taking a big step towards participatory development. We are launching our community outreach program, the Open Knowledge Maps Enthusiasts!

The Enthusiasts are power users and ambassadors from all over the world, who spread the word in their communities, report feedback, and provide input on various aspects of Open Knowledge Maps. Open Knowledge Maps is fueled by user feedback, and we have established this program to highlight the importance of our community and their critical role in shaping OKMaps.

So please welcome with us Amie Fairs, Benedikt Fecher, Girija Goyal, Ricardo Hartley Belmar, Jeremiah Pietersen, and Mari Plaza! These six outstanding proponents of open discovery will not only run workshops and a variety of other activities on four different continents - they will also help us shaping the Enthusiasts program.

We would like to thank Mozilla and the Sloan Foundation for providing financial support for establishing the Enthusiasts program. For more info on the program and to learn how you can become an Enthusiast yourself, check out our brand new community page.

Together we can change the way we discover research!

Our Community

20 March 2018

Open Knowledge Maps wins OpenAIRE tender to create a tool that lets you visualize any research project

What do snakes and the visualization of research projects have in common? The answer is: VIPER. VIPER stands for VIsual Project ExploreR, a unique open science application that focuses on the discovery of research project results. VIPER will enable you to systematically explore a project's output and to understand its impact in different areas.

VIPER is made possible thanks to OpenAIRE, a key infrastructure that enables the European transition to open science. At the end of 2017, OpenAIRE launched an open call for tenders, seeking innovative ideas that would improve the OpenAIRE infrastructure services and/or their overall uptake. We are delighted to announce that Open Knowledge Maps's proposal has been among the 5 winning bids.

To realize this idea, we will create knowledge maps for more than 700.000 projects by 15 funding agencies in OpenAIRE's massive database. VIPER exploits a unique property of OpenAIRE data: the link between projects and publications and datasets. Stay tuned for more infos and updates!

OpenAIRE tender call results

20 March 2018

We ❤ user feedback!

We constantly receive useful input from you, which we incorporate in our development. Here are a few examples of changes that the Open Knowledge Maps team designed and implemented over the past few weeks based on your feedback.

#1 Datepicker
The datepicker in the search box was not very useful. We've improved its behaviour and appearance and made the year selectable from a dropdown.

#2 Zoom in & Zoom out
It was not always clear where you need to click in order to zoom in or zoom out. We have introduced new mouse cursors to clearly signal this behaviour.

#3 Copy area title
It was not possible to copy and paste the bubble title when zoomed into a bubble. Now you can!

So, please keep the feedback coming. Together, we can change the way we discover research!

How to get in touch

20 February 2018

Know-Center joins the Open Knowledge Maps core team

We are happy to announce that Know-Center has joined the Open Knowledge Maps core team as our very first organizational member. Know-Center will support Open Knowledge Maps with a considerable contribution allowing us to cover our operational costs and grow as an independent organization. This is the next step in what has been a longstanding partnership between the two organizations. Peter Kraker, founder and chairman of Open Knowledge Maps, laid the foundations for the organization whilst at Know-Center, and Know-Center has been a strong partner and advocate ever since.

Stefanie Lindstaedt, CEO of Know-Center, says:

"At Know-Center, knowledge transfer is a key part of our mission. Open Knowledge Maps is a revolutionary tool in this regard, a window into science. Through this window, researchers, practitioners and citizens can explore the wealth of scientific knowledge in a much better way than before. We are excited to be a part of this unique open science endeavor."

Peter Kraker, founder and chairman of Open Knowledge Maps, adds:

"We are thrilled to take our partnership with Know-Center to the next level. If recent market entrances are any indication, discovery will be one of the key areas of the digital research infrastructure. Having Know-Center on board goes a long way in making Open Knowledge Maps a sustainable building block of the open science ecosystem."

In our joint effort to become ever more open, we have also agreed to switch the license of the open source knowledge mapping framework Head Start from LGPL to MIT.

about Know-Center

9 January 2018

How to stay up-to-date in your research field

2.5 million new research papers are published each year. That makes staying up-to-date a hard task - and it keeps you from doing actual research.

But did you know that you can easily keep yourself updated using Open Knowledge Maps? Just select the option “Most recent” in the “Refine your search” section. Our award-winning software then creates a knowledge map based on the 100 most recent documents for your search term. That way you get an instant overview of the hottest topics in your field.



Let Open Knowledge Maps help you get a head start on your literature research in 2018.

Get started now!

9 January 2018

Open Knowledge Maps joins two important open science networks

We're proud to announce that we have become a member of the Leibniz Research Alliance Science 2.0 and the Open Access Network Austria!

The Leibniz Research Alliance Science 2.0 examines the effects of Science 2.0 and open science on science and society. The Research Alliance is incorporated in the Leibniz Association and coordinated by ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics. Its mission is currently advanced by 37 association partners from different disciplines.

The Open Access Network Austria (OANA) develops recommendations for open access and open science activities of Austrian research institutions, funding organisations and research policies. OANA has over 60 member organisations and is a joint activity under the organisational umbrella of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and Universities Austria (UNIKO).

"By joining OANA and the Research Alliance Science 2.0 we're showing our ongoing commitment to supporting and advancing open science," says Peter Kraker, founder and chairman of Open Knowledge Maps.

Our network memberships

23 October 2017

Meet us at FORCE2017 & other #OAWeek events

In celebration of the International Open Access Week, OKMaps team members will participate in various events centered around open science and open knowledge - and we would love to meet you there!

Join us at FORCE2017, where we will host a demo on Thursday and a scientific scavenger hunt on Friday. Or catch up with our workshop at Ecosystems of Open Knowledge (ECA 2017), the largest library-related event in Spain, at University of Salamanca.

In addition, you will find us at WikidataCon and MozFest. We are looking forward to discussing open science and discovery of research findings with you.

about Open Access Week

23 October 2017

Thank you for support!

In the past months, many of you have supported us in a wide variety of ways: by promoting Open Knowledge Maps in your communities, by posting maps on social media, or by providing feedback and suggestions in our survey (107 responses!). As a result, Open Knowledge Maps is growing and reaching more and more people around the world. We were also honored to receive the Open Minds Award by the Austrian open source community.

Thank you so much for your outstanding support and keep spreading the word of open discovery!

How to support OKMaps

27 September 2017

Open Knowledge Maps wins Open Minds Award

We are honored to announce that Open Knowledge Maps has won the Open Minds Award, the Austrian Open Source Award, in the category Open Software 🎉

The award considers open source projects, which enable widespread participation and collaboration. The jury of Linuxwochen Austria acknowledged Open Knowledge Maps especially for enabling users to see the big picture of scientific findings.

Peter Kraker, founder and chairman of Open Knowledge Maps, accepted the award on behalf of the project team on Tuesday evening. In his acceptance speech, Peter emphasized the collaborative and voluntary nature of the project and thanked the international Open Knowledge Maps community - our team, advisors, partners, and users - for their incredible effort and support.

A big shout out to all our supporters - THANK YOU!

about Open Minds Award

18 September 2017

Your feedback on Open Knowledge Maps

We want to improve your experience with Open Knowledge Maps - and for that, we need your feedback! We invite you to fill in a short survey (5-9 mins), which we have created in collaboration with FH JOANNEUM - University of Applied Sciences in Graz, Austria.

Please click the button below to get to the survey and have your say in the future development of Open Knowledge Maps.

Take our survey

18 September 2017

Nomination for the Open Minds Award

We are honored to be nominated for the Open Minds Award, the Austrian Open Source Award. The award considers open source projects, which enable widespread participation and collaboration. Thanks to you, the Open Knowledge Maps team & community, for your continued support!

about Open Minds Award

06 September 2017

Share your favorite maps with the world

A major update to Open Knowledge Maps makes it much easier for you to share your favorite maps with others and jointly discover amazing research. It's simple: click on the share buttons next to each map to post it to a social media service of your choice - including a snapshot of the actual map.

In addition, we've improved the quality of our maps and the usability of our website. So we invite you to visit the all-new Open Knowledge Maps to re-search old favorites and investigate new topics!

create and share

06 September 2017

Open Knowledge Maps signs Memorandum of Understanding with Citizen Science Network Austria

We are honored to partner with Citizen Science Network Austria to support citizen science as an inclusive approach to knowledge creation. This emphasizes our strong commitment to improving visibility of scientific findings for science and society alike.

about Citizen Science Network Austria

12 June 2017

It all started at #mozsprint...

During Mozilla's Global Sprint on June 1st & 2nd, the Open Knowledge Maps team got together to improve the quality and usability of our knowledge maps. The sprint continued into last week and after much polishing, we have now released the new version on our site. Enhancements include improved naming and clustering as well as a higher visibility of open access papers.

try it out now

12 June 2017

Open Knowledge Maps joins Annotating All Knowledge Coalition

We are honored to join Annotating All Knowledge, a coalition of more than 60 organisations aiming to create an open annotation layer over all scholarly knowledge. At Open Knowledge Maps, we support this goal, because we believe that open and collaborative processes will change the way we explore and discover research. As a first measure, we have enabled open annotation of all PDFs within our interface by integrating Hypothes.is into our "Preview PDF" window.

about the coalition

7 May 2017

Meet us at re:publica 2017

Open Knowledge Maps is coming to Berlin again - this time for #rp17. With more than 8,000 participants from around the world, re:publica is one of the largest conferences on digital culture. We are looking forward to connecting to a diverse set of communities and to meeting new and old friends. If you're at the conference, don't miss our lightning talk on Monday, May 8 at 4:30pm.

our session at re:publica

22 March 2017

New: Visualize a research topic based on 100 million scientific documents

We are happy to announce that Open Knowledge Maps is now connected to one of the largest academic search engines in the world: BASE.

For the first time you are able to visualize a research topic in any discipline. In addition, you can now search within different types of resources, including datasets and software. We would like to thank the BASE team for their outstanding support in making this happen!

We have also spent a lot of time improving the naming of the sub-areas to make the concepts in a field more visible - which means that this update improves our existing PubMed integration too.

As always, we welcome any feedback you may have!

Try it out now!

14 March 2017

Meet us at the Open Science Barcamp & Conference in Berlin

Open Knowledge Maps is coming to Berlin this March with a big surprise up the sleeves.

Make sure to visit our poster during the poster session or talk to us at the barcamp, for which we have proposed a session. We will be happy to discuss all things OKMaps and to demonstrate the latest and greatest features. We will also be revealing a big surprise 🎉 So join us from March 20 to 22!

about Open Science Conference 2017

16 Dezember 2016

A BIG THANK YOU to our community!

Great things have happened following our launch of the DOAJ and PubMed integrations. We saw a broad coverage on the web, including an appearance on the Reddit front page in early November and an article in c't magazine. More than 44,000 people visited Open Knowledge Maps in November, and almost 25,000 maps have been created to date.

We have also introduced Open Knowledge Maps at numerous events including MozFest, OpenCon & OpenCon Berlin, and NetzPat Vienna to name just a few. In total, over 230 people attended our workshops and sessions. The positive feedback was overwhelming and we want to thank our emerging community for their great support. Loads of you have posted great comments, written articles and spread Open Knowledge Maps in your respective communities, posted issues and ideas on Github, or become part of the team and advisory board. A BIG THANK YOU! We are happy to see everyone getting involved and we are also thinking about new ways to make it even easier for you to be part of the Open Knowledge Maps community in the future. Together we can revolutionize discovery!

2 November 2016

PubMed and DOAJ integration is here!

Over the summer, we have been working hard to provide you with visualizations that cover broader content sources. Now, our integration of PubMed and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is finally here.

This means that you are now able to search within more than 28 million articles. In addition, we have completely overhauled our design and improved the user experience considerably - including the integration of the open annotation software Hypothes.is in our PDF preview. Try it out and let us know what you think!

23 October 2016

Open Knowledge Maps is coming to MozFest 2016

Open Knowledge Maps premiered in an exciting session at Mozilla Festival 2015 - and this year we are returning with an action-packed program including demos and a hands-on session.

We will demonstrate how you can use OKMaps not only to discover the literature that you need but also to improve your understanding of the structure of your research area. Join us in London from October 28 to 30!

About Mozfest

20 October 2016

OK Maps Meetup at the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Our very first meetup in cooperation with OK-AT and ÖAW BAS:IS will take place at the historic Austrian Academy of Sciences on October 24 at 18:00 CEST.

Join us for an evening of hands-on action with Open Knowledge Maps & a discussion of literature research strategies and the future of discovery.