Submitting Research to International Journals from Germany: DEAL Agreements, Open Access, and Impact Factor Strategy

German researchers submit more than 100,000 English-language articles to international journals each year. Researchers make decisions about which journals to target, when to submit, and which open access route to take. Those decisions affect career progression, DFG reporting, and the discoverability of the research itself. This guide covers the three frameworks every German researcher should understand before choosing a target journal. The first is the DEAL agreements that cover open access publishing fees with the major commercial publishers. The second is the DFG reporting requirements that depend on your publication record. The third is the impact factor and VHB-Rating systems that shape how publication records are assessed in German academic careers. The guide also covers the timeline and language quality expectations that make the difference between a manuscript that is accepted and one that is desk-rejected.

DEAL Agreements: Open Access Publishing at German Institutions

Project DEAL is a consortium of more than 1,000 German academic institutions organized under the German Rectors' Conference. Members include universities, Max Planck institutes, Helmholtz centers, Leibniz Association institutions, and Fraunhofer institutes. Project DEAL has negotiated three transformative open access agreements with the largest commercial scholarly publishers: Wiley, Springer Nature, and Elsevier. Each agreement combines reading access to the publisher's journal portfolio with the right to publish articles open access in the covered journals. The per-article fee is paid through the publisher's contract with Project DEAL rather than by the individual researcher.

The practical effect for a researcher at a Project DEAL member institution is significant. If your manuscript is accepted in a covered journal, the open access publication fee is paid through the DEAL framework rather than from your project budget or personal funds. Your article appears open access immediately on publication. Your institution's library or research office handles the financial and administrative side. You do not need to apply for an article processing charge waiver, find external funds for open access, or accept a closed-access publication when an open access option exists.

The Wiley DEAL agreement

The Wiley DEAL agreement was the first transformative agreement Project DEAL closed, signed in January 2019 and subsequently extended. It covers approximately 1,500 Wiley hybrid and gold open access journals. The per-article publish-and-read fee for hybrid journal publications is €2,750, with a 20% discount on article processing charges for gold open access journals. Researchers at Project DEAL member institutions can publish open access in covered Wiley journals across every discipline in which Wiley publishes. The portfolio includes medicine, the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, and engineering.

The Springer Nature DEAL agreement

The Springer Nature DEAL agreement covers approximately 2,500 Springer Nature journals, including the Springer journal portfolio, BMC journals, the Nature research journals, and the Nature subject-specific journals. The agreement was signed in 2020 and extended in 2023 as a five-year continuation. The per-article fee for hybrid journal publications is €2,750. German researchers publish more than 13,000 articles in Springer Nature journals each year under the agreement, including a significant proportion of the Nature research journal output authored by Germany-affiliated researchers.

For researchers in the natural sciences and life sciences, the Springer Nature agreement opens immediate open access publication in the publisher's life sciences and physical sciences portfolio. The portfolio includes some of the most highly cited journals in those fields. The agreement also covers a substantial range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals across the Springer and Palgrave Macmillan portfolios for the social sciences and humanities.

The Elsevier DEAL agreement

The Elsevier DEAL agreement was finalized in 2023 after years of negotiation, ending the period from 2017 onward when many German institutions had let their Elsevier subscriptions lapse. The agreement covers virtually all of Elsevier's more than 2,600 publications, with a small number of journals published in cooperation with scientific societies excluded. The per-article fee for most Elsevier hybrid journals is €2,550, with annual increases. Cell Press and The Lancet journals carry a higher per-article fee of €6,450, with steeper annual increases. Authors publishing in Elsevier's fully gold open access journals receive a 20% discount on most article processing charges, with a 15% discount for Cell Press and Lancet family journals. The agreement is in force through at least 2028.

Checking your institution's DEAL membership

Most German research universities, every Excellence Strategy university, every Max Planck institute, the Helmholtz Association, the Leibniz Association, and Fraunhofer institutes are Project DEAL members. Smaller institutions, applied science universities, and some specialized research institutes may have different membership statuses across the three agreements. Check your library's website for current DEAL membership across Wiley, Springer Nature, and Elsevier before submitting. Library research offices typically maintain a journal-level lookup tool that confirms whether a specific journal is covered by your institution's agreement. If your institution is not a Project DEAL member for the publisher you are targeting, the open access fee is your responsibility. Budgeting for the fee should be part of your submission planning.

DFG Reporting Requirements and Your Publication Record

If your research is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, your publication record is part of your formal accountability to the DFG. The submission decisions you make during the funded period will appear in your final report and in any subsequent funding application that references your prior DFG support. Understanding the reporting framework is essential for planning a submission timeline that aligns with your project end date.

The DFG final report: format and deadline

DFG final reports are due three months after the end of the funded project. The report is submitted electronically through the DFG's elan portal as a single PDF. Since 1 January 2023, DFG final reports follow a structured template with two parts. The public part is intended for publication in an open access repository. The non-public part is intended only for the DFG and its reviewers. The public part includes a generally comprehensible summary that appears in GEPRIS, the DFG's project database, and a list of publications produced under the grant. The non-public part includes the detailed scientific account of the project's results and any unpublished work.

DFG final reports are externally reviewed. The reviewers assess whether the project has met its scientific objectives and whether the funded researcher has produced a publication record commensurate with the funding. A strong publication record in well-regarded journals supports a positive review. A weak publication record creates questions that the report must address directly. The bibliography section of the report should list all publications that emerged from the project, with the journal name, year, and DOI for each entry. Publications still under review at the time of the final report can be listed as such.

Publications and future DFG funding

Your DFG-funded publication record affects your competitiveness for future DFG proposals in two ways. First, your CV and publication list are evaluated when you apply for any subsequent DFG grant. The reviewers assess what you have produced from prior funding when deciding whether to support new funding. Second, if you fail to submit a final report despite repeated reminders, the DFG may impose a two-year ban on new proposal submissions. The ban applies to the principal investigator personally. It is a meaningful constraint on early-career researchers in particular. A two-year gap in DFG funding can disrupt the trajectory of an entire research group at this stage of a career.

For researchers planning a final report, the practical implication is that submission timing matters. A manuscript submitted to a high-impact journal eighteen months before the project end has time to navigate revision and resubmission cycles before the report deadline. A manuscript submitted three months before the project end will almost certainly still be under review when the report is due. The journal selection decision should account for the realistic timeline from submission to final acceptance for the journals you are considering. The journal's perceived prestige or fit for the topic is not the only factor that matters in this decision.

Impact Factor and German Research Evaluation

The Journal Citation Reports impact factor remains a primary metric in German research evaluation across the natural sciences, life sciences, and medicine. Excellence Strategy university assessments, Max Planck Society institute evaluations, Helmholtz program-oriented funding reviews, and Leibniz Association evaluations all consider impact factor profiles when assessing publication output. Impact factor is one input among several. Individual researcher assessments at the postdoctoral, junior research group leader, and full professorial appointment stages also take impact factor into account. The effect is strongest in disciplines where high-impact-factor journals dominate the field's publication culture.

The DFG itself has formally moved away from purely metric-based assessment in recent years. The DFG's 2022 position paper on academic publishing emphasizes content-based assessment over metric-based assessment and supports the principles of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). DFG proposals are assessed on the scientific quality of the proposed work and the principal investigator's track record. Reviewers are asked to consider publications individually rather than rely on journal metrics as a proxy for quality. In practice, however, the journals you publish in continue to shape how reviewers, hiring committees, and institutional evaluators interpret your record. The impact factor is one signal of journal quality, alongside the journal's reputation in your specific subfield, the rigor of its peer review, and the visibility of articles published there.

Open access and citation impact

Articles published open access are read more, downloaded more, and cited more than equivalent articles published behind a paywall. The citation effect compounds over time. An article published open access in a covered DEAL journal in 2026 will continue to be discoverable, downloadable, and citable in 2030 and 2035. A paywalled article in the same journal will not. For German researchers operating under DEAL agreements, this citation discoverability advantage is one of the strongest practical reasons to publish in covered journals. The advantage applies whenever the journal is otherwise a strong fit for the work.

VHB-Rating and Business Research Evaluation

Researchers in business administration, management, finance, accounting, marketing, and the wider business research community in German-speaking countries are evaluated against a different journal ranking. The VHB-Rating, formerly known as VHB-JOURQUAL and most recently VHB-JOURQUAL 3, is the journal ranking maintained by the Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft, the German Academic Association for Business Research. The VHB-Rating organizes business journals into categories from A+ down through A, B, C, and D, with A+ representing the small set of globally leading journals in business research. The VHB-Rating is divided into 18 specialty sub-ratings reflecting the disciplinary structure of business research, including general business administration, finance, marketing, accounting, organization, operations management, and the other major subfields.

The VHB-Rating 2024 is the current version, replacing VHB-JOURQUAL 3 from 2015. A+ journals in the General Business Administration sub-rating include Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, and Management Science. Each disciplinary sub-rating identifies a small number of A+ outlets and a wider set of A and B journals that German business researchers target. For tenure, promotion, and professorial appointment decisions at German, Austrian, and Swiss universities, candidates are typically expected to demonstrate publications in VHB A or A+ journals. For business researchers, the VHB-Rating profile of a candidate's publication record is the equivalent of the impact factor profile in the sciences.

VHB-Rating and DEAL coverage

A practical question for business researchers is how the VHB-Rating intersects with DEAL coverage. Many of the top business journals are published by Wiley, Springer Nature, or Elsevier and are therefore covered by Project DEAL agreements. Examples include Strategic Management Journal (Wiley), Journal of Finance (Wiley), and Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research (Springer Nature). The leading Elsevier business journals also sit within the DEAL portfolio. Other top journals sit with publishers outside the DEAL framework. These include the Academy of Management journals (Academy of Management) and several leading economics and finance journals at university presses and society publishers. Journal of Marketing (SAGE) is another widely targeted business journal that is not currently covered by Project DEAL. For each journal you target, check both the VHB-Rating and the DEAL coverage of the publisher before submitting. The combination determines both the career value of the publication and the financial cost of the open access decision.

Choosing a Target Journal: A Practical Framework

For most German researchers, the journal selection decision involves balancing four considerations: fit with the work, prestige and metrics, open access strategy, and realistic timeline. A useful framework is to identify three target journals before submitting. The primary target is the journal where the work is the strongest fit and the prestige is the highest realistically achievable. The secondary target is where the fit is still strong and the acceptance probability is higher. The tertiary target is the journal that ensures the work will be published before any institutional or DFG reporting deadline. Submit to the primary target first. If desk-rejected or rejected after review, move to the secondary target. The tertiary target functions as a backstop rather than a default destination.

Step-by-step journal selection process

1. Confirm fit with the journal's published scope. Read the journal's aims and scope statement and recent issues. A manuscript outside the journal's scope is desk-rejected regardless of its quality.
2. Check DEAL coverage at your institution. Use your library's DEAL lookup tool to confirm whether the journal is covered for your institution. Note the per-article fee if it falls outside the DEAL framework.
3. Check the journal's metrics relative to your career stage and discipline. Impact factor for the sciences, VHB-Rating for business research, the journal's standing in its specialty for fields that use other rankings.
4. Review the journal's submission requirements and language standards. Note whether the journal accepts British or American English, the word count limits, the formatting requirements, and any specific submission requirements such as data availability statements or author contribution declarations.
5. Check the journal's typical time from submission to first decision and from submission to acceptance. This information appears in journal author guidelines or in the journal's publicly reported handling statistics. Use it to plan against your project end date and any reporting deadlines.
6. Edit the manuscript before submission. Native English language quality is a precondition for desk-acceptance at every high-impact journal. See our journal article editing service for German researchers for the editing intervention that addresses German English writing patterns specifically.

Language Quality and Desk-Rejection

A significant proportion of manuscripts submitted to international journals are desk-rejected before reaching peer review. Editors at the highest-impact journals desk-reject manuscripts on three primary grounds: scope mismatch, weak contribution to the field, and inadequate language quality. The third ground is the one a German researcher can address most directly. A manuscript with German academic English patterns throughout signals to a journal editor that the manuscript needs substantial language work before it can be reviewed effectively. These patterns include long subordinated sentences, heavy nominalization, passive voice overuse, false cognates, and over-formal register. Editors who handle hundreds of submissions each week make rapid judgments about which manuscripts move forward to peer review and which do not.

Professional editing by a native English editor before submission removes language quality as a desk-rejection factor. The editor addresses the structural English writing patterns that develop when German is the writer's first language. The editor calibrates the register to international journal expectations. The result is a manuscript that reads as written in English by a researcher rather than translated from German conventions. The editing happens once before submission rather than in response to reviewer comments after a costly first round. For Editor World's coverage of German English writing patterns, see our articles on common English writing errors made by German academic writers and English writing errors made by German business writers. For international researchers at German universities working in English as a second or third language, see our ESL editing service for international researchers at German universities.

Building a Submission Timeline

Working backward from your DFG project end date, the practical timeline for a journal submission looks like this. The end date is in twelve months. The final report is due fifteen months from now. A manuscript that goes through one round of revision before acceptance typically takes six to nine months from submission to acceptance at most international journals. Some high-impact journals run longer. To have an accepted publication to report, you need to submit the manuscript no later than six months before the project end, ideally earlier. To submit the manuscript six months before the project end, you need a finished, edited draft ready for submission. To produce a finished, edited draft, you need to complete the writing, internal review, and professional editing pass two to three weeks before your target submission date.

For researchers planning multiple submissions from a single project, the timeline compounds. Three planned submissions across the project's final year require three finished, edited drafts. They also require three target journals identified in advance. They require the willingness to move to a secondary target promptly if the primary target rejects. The most common timeline mistake is treating the writing and editing phases as buffers that can absorb delays elsewhere in the project. They cannot. Move them earlier in the project plan rather than treating them as the final step.

After Acceptance: Open Access Publication and DFG Reporting

When your manuscript is accepted in a DEAL-covered journal, the open access publication route is handled through your institution's library or research office. Confirm with the journal's author services that your institution is recognized as a Project DEAL member. The journal's editorial office typically prompts the corresponding author to confirm institutional affiliation for DEAL coverage during the production stage. The published article appears open access on the journal's website and is indexed by Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, and the field-specific databases that index your research community.

For DFG reporting, add the publication to the bibliography of your final report when you submit it through the elan portal. Include the journal name, year, DOI, and any persistent identifier the publisher has assigned. If you have published your final report in a repository, register the report's persistent identifier with the DFG via the elan portal. The report and its publications then appear together in GEPRIS. The publication, the project, and the report become a connected record of the research the DFG funded.

Get Your Manuscript Edited Before Submission

Editor World provides professional English editing for German researchers preparing manuscripts for international journals. Every editor is a native English speaker from the United States, the United Kingdom, or Canada. No AI tools are used at any stage. Editors are matched to your manuscript by discipline. A Cell submission is reviewed by an editor with biomedical research expertise. A Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research submission is reviewed by an editor with business research expertise. All corrections are returned in Track Changes for individual review before you submit.

For full coverage of the editing intervention for German researchers, see our journal article editing service for German researchers. For DFG grant applications specifically, see our article on English editing for DFG grant applications. For dissertations, see our dissertation editing service for Germany. For an overview of Editor World's services across Germany, visit our English editing services in Germany page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Content reviewed by Editor World editorial staff. Editor World provides professional English editing and proofreading services for researchers preparing manuscripts for international journals. Founded in 2010, Editor World has served more than 8,000 clients in 65+ countries with native English editors only and no AI tools at any stage.