National Licenses
National licenses enable free access to research. Anyone who is permanently resident in Germany can register.
National licenses are funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) and provide permanent access to academic and scientific publications and databases. This content is licensed centrally for the whole of Germany.
It can be used by higher-education and research institutions as well as by private individuals permanently resident in Germany who hold the right license agreement.
There are two forms of access:
- Institutional access: Higher-education and research institutions (which are generally in the public sector) will need to register for national licenses individually. Once these have been activated, they will get access to the content licensed in each case, usually via their IP address. Like many of our peers, we also give our users external access to host of products covered by a national license, which are accessed via the University network.
- Personal access: If you do not have institutional access via a library or higher-education institution, you will need to register individually. Those with a general research interest who are resident in Germany can register for free, after which they will receive their personal login details for using the licensed content.
You can find an overview of all available products and further information in the list of all available national licenses. Consult DBIS for details of which national licenses have been activated for the USL. Please be aware that the scope of each license will vary depending on the service provided and that the most recent years of some publications will not always be included. The precise scope of a license will be shown in the overview.
Frequently asked questions about national licenses
The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) is the central funding organization for research in Germany. It supports research projects at higher-education and other research institutions and is committed to ensuring the quality and continued development of the academic system.
Anyone who is permanently resident in Germany can ask to be registered for free access for this purpose.
Die Anmeldung erfolgt in mehreren Schritten – teilweise online, teilweise per Post:
- Select licenses
From the list of all available national licenses, select the products that you want by clicking on the blue “Lizenz vormerken” (“Add license to wishlist”) button on the corresponding product page. Once you have selected all the products you want, continue the registration process by clicking on the green “Registrierung abschließen” (“Complete registration”) button. - Accept terms of use
Accept the terms of use for each of your chosen products and click on “weiter” (“next”). - Register online
Enter your postal and email addresses in the online form. - Confirm email
You will receive an email containing a confirmation link, which you should click on to continue the process. - Receive login details by mail
You will be sent a letter containing your login details (user name and password), which will give you direct access to your products. - Subsequent changes
If you would like to access additional products or have moved house, you can make the necessary changes in the user administration section at any time.
Membership is limited to one year. The exact date on which yours will end will be shown in your personal profile at www.nationallizenzen.de. Look under Verschiedenes → Mitgliedschaft endet am (“Miscellaneous” → “Membership ends on”).
Your access will remain active for three months after your membership has expired, after which your user name and all personal details will be irretrievably removed.
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