With its funding decision in 2019, the Joint Science Conference of the Federal Government and the Länder had paved the way for zbMATH Open. Now it is done: In an elaborate work process, the information service was transformed into an open access platform. This means that much of the data can be used freely for research purposes and for linking to other non-commercial services.
zbMATH (formerly Zentralblatt für Mathematik) provides comprehensive, scientifically deeply indexed information on mathematical publications, authors, software and references from 1886 to the present. However, the reusability of this wealth of knowledge and the possibilities of networking the related data had been severely limited by the previous licensing model.
The new zbMATH Open platform with its open interfaces will now enable the integration of other services and enhanced search functions, for example, for full texts from free digital libraries such as arXiv and EuDML. A further dimension of new applications is offered by the linkage with mathematical research data, which so far have been largely isolated and poorly indexed.
Prof. Dr. Klaus Hulek, Editor in Chief of zbMATH, points out: “With zbMATH Open we provide especially the mathematical community with a hitherto unique research tool that also offers the possibility to participate in the further development of zbMATH“.
Sabine Brünger-Weilandt, President and CEO of FIZ Karlsruhe, adds: “The main idea behind the transformation of zbMATH into the zbMATH Open platform was to network zbMATH with other services and data. This creates new research areas and a great potential for innovation”.
More information is available on the zbMATH Open product website zbmath.org and on our website www.fiz-karlsruhe.de.
