Although the exam period of the winter semester was likely as packed as ever with written exams, assignments and oral exams, it marked a special premiere for us. In response to repeated requests from our users, we trialled the 24/7 opening of our library from 5 to 13 February 2026, meaning the building was open continuously to members of Chemnitz University of Technology during this period.
Anyone who followed our Instagram channel closely in January was able to take part in our story poll regarding the upcoming 24/7 opening. On average, 38 people shared their views on each question, and although the results weren’t representative, they did give us a brief insight into the general mood. We were delighted to read that you appreciate us as a place to study and that you are able to prepare well for your exams here. When it came to questions about preferred study times, two distinct preferences emerged: studying during the day versus studying at night.
Sixty-two percent of participants cited the morning and afternoon as their preferred time for studying. When asked, “Are you ready for 24/7 opening hours?”, 44 percent of participants stated that they intend to continue studying at the library during the day. In contrast, 38 percent of participants prefer to study at night. For this group, the 24/7 opening hours were apparently of particular interest, as 56 percent of participants were looking forward to it and half of them even planned to visit the library only at night from now on. When asked whether there is currently enough time to study in the library, 64 percent of participants replied that it is not the case for them. As no reasons were given, only assumptions can be made as to the causes. One possible factor could be the library’s opening hours, which have been extended to midnight once again during the exam period. However, from 5 February 2026, everyone should at least have had nine days of sufficient time to prepare for their exams in the library.
The 24/7 opening kick-off was marked by the ‘Long Night of Procrastinated Assignments’, which was attended by around 800 people between 4 pm and midnight. Many students stayed in the building afterwards to spend the following hours ‘at night in the library’. Although we didn’t have any talking exhibition pieces, you still made good use of the time, for example playing games in the common area or for study sessions in your sleeping bags.
However, statistics from our security service indicate that the initial enthusiasm for the extended opening hours quickly waned. Over the following days, there were only around 30 people in the building from 12.30 am onwards, and by 4 am there were only five to ten people left. What has been proven is that the extended opening hours until midnight pay off during the exam period, as an average of 90 people were studying in the library between 10 pm and midnight; the highest attendance was 128 and 118 people.
Overall, only a limited number of users visited the library during the night, meaning that visitor numbers fell short of expectations. The costs associated with security staff and electricity were therefore not justified. For this reason, we do not consider 24/7 opening to be feasible; by contrast, the extended opening hours until midnight have consistently proven to be in high demand.
Although (unfortunately) the saying ‘After the exam period is before the exam period’ applies to most of you, do enjoy the last few days before the start of the summer semester and get some good rest!
In the following of the Open Science Week 2025 and the conferment of the Open Science Award, we look back on an eventful week.
The Open Science Team of the University Library, the project D2C2 and the ACROSS Alliance jointly have designed a varied program. In addition to interesting presentations, there were also offered opportunities to participate in several actions like “Change my mind” and an Open Science quiz.
The highlight was the conferment of the Open Science Award (photo). Potential awardees had the opportunities for self-proposal or to be proposed by another person. All nominated persons subsequently submitted an own application.
The number of impressive applications has surprised and amazed us completely.
It appeared almost impossible to only select 3 of them for the award.
However, as not all of them could have been conferred an award, we attach importance to give an overview of all projects in their uniqueness again. The descriptions of the projects were mainly taken from the proposals submitted resp. from the presentations. We assume that the respective contact persons would be delighted to give detailed information.
[The following order does not correspond to an assessment of the contributions]
StochasticDominance is a Julia Open-Source-package for enhanced decision-making in financial options and enables an efficient verification and optimization under stochastic dominance conditions of higher order. By the reduction of infinite conditions to a finite set, the tools makes innovative methods for decision-making accessible and practicable for researchers and practicians. (Rajmadan Lakshmanan & Prof. Dr. Alois Pichler)
The “PartWiss” Guideline for participation in research was collaboratively designed by more than 150 persons involved. It describes crucial aspects in ten action fields. It has for objective to provide practical guidance and orientation regarding the variety of participative approaches and terms. It is designed as a didactically appealing set of cards for modularly use. The respective cards include additional practical information and indications regarding further materials. (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Bischof)
The science-podcast „Linguistics Behind the Scenes” describes a particular manner for drawing attention on research and to make it step-by-step accessible for the grand public. It has for objective to generate interest for linguistic issues, to inform at the same time by the way about scientific methods and to teach important contents of the research in a comprehensive manner. Via links in the shownotes to Spotify etc., interested persons may read almost all publications used in order to develop their own point of view. A number of articles and book contributions used were published as secondary publications in the repository MONARCH-Qucosa. (Prof. Dr. Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer)
PhD-project “Digitally Created Body Positivity”: Ms. Yeo understands her doctorate in a holistic manner with regard to Open Science and teaches her experiences as scientific staff member to students. In her research project, she frequently faced the challenge of limited access to information. Materials available were not varied enough, were not sufficiently comparable and limitedly replicable. For this reason, she has collected comprehensive data, has elaborated sample stimuli and has stored them on OSF (Open Science Framework). All empirical projects were pre-registered. Assumptions, design and analytical procedures as well as exclusion criteria were openly published. For the materials she has assigned the most open Open Access license CC BY 4.0. Within her entire research process, she exclusively published Open Access. This approach is also for a part mandatorily applied within the supervision of final theses but also comprehensively supported by the students. (Jiyeon Yeo)
BirdNET: It his hardly necessary to explain this project. With more than 2 million active users of the app integrated in more than 80 research projects, it counts among the most popular research projects of Chemnitz University of Technology. The artificial neuronal network is able to distinguish more than 6.000 bird species, provided by a free license and serves as base for a variety of freely-accessible Open-Source-solutions. With this tool, the transdisciplinary and international team contributes significantly to the protection of biodiversity. Unique in comparison to other AI-systems is the transparency and reproducibility. The barrier-free and low-threshold access enables the reception by professional research as well as by biologists, environmental organizations and citizen-science-projects. (Dr. Stefan Kahl)
The research of Ms. Morgenstern is in the field of spin dynamics in organic molecules and she publishes all her results Open Access. She serves as model for the open provision of measuring data, analytic scripts and the complete measurements as well as the corresponding analytic procedure on GitHub. These activities are a role model for Open Science in organic electronics. They enable the complete reproducibility and transdisciplinary reusability in the fields of physics, material sciences and engineering. In addition, she has introduced the electronic lab-book elabFTW in the researchers group in order to assure a standardized and FAIR-complying documentation of data. This approach breaks with the traditionally closed practices in that field and demonstrates how transparency and accessibility may enhance scientific progress. (Annika Morgenstern)
From February to November 2024, the online panel-study regarding the influence of Deepfakes on the reception of democratic processes and polarization was implemented. The questionnaire for the survey as well as the analytic plan was pre-registered on OSF. The ethical evaluation of the project is openly accessible. A manuscript, including replication-scripts, data sets and code-book are currently in review. The data set was made known within the Community and researches get access to the data subsequent to pre-registration of their research issue. The project was initiated solely by junior researchers without third-party-funding. It serves as role model for collaborative, accessible research and active promotion of Open Science in the social sciences. (Klara Marie Steinmetz)
“Frontiers in Neurorobotics” is the only Open Access-journal in the field of neurorobotics world-wide. After challenging initial years, it had been established successfully thanks to a high quality of the articles published and has reached an Impact-factor of 2.8, a CiteScore of 6.1 and 25,138 citations in total. Prof. Röhrbein counts among the main editors of this journal and serves as contact person for a variety of editors and reviewers. Thus, the contributes significantly to the global enhancement of research by Open Access and proves that Open Access (Open Science) may be related to highest quality. He already reported his experiences to the ERC-president and the president of the German Rectors’ Conference. (Prof. Dr. Florian Röhrbein)
Since nearly four years, the Professional Learning Community Open Science establishes Open Science (OS) in teaching by an innovative “Students as Partners”-concept. Presentation Packages elaborated as Open Educational Resources (OER) familiarize psychology students with OS-principles from the first day on. Pre-registration workshops create direct relations to practice. In an extracurricular way, the Journal Club and the Instagram-Account focus on the societal relevance of OS-contents and address directly to students, lecturers and researchers. Thanks to the perfect mixture between teaching, peer-learning and science communication, the psychology students are introduced in a targeted manner to transparent science. (Kathrin Fucke)
The Digital Health Application (DiGa) Mawendo is a therapeutic program for training at home. The training programs include exercise videos and are state-of-the-art. A team of the Professorship for Research Methods and Analytic Procedures in Biomechanics has managed to prove that the DiGA is superior in comparison with the standard therapy (physiotherapy). Exclusively in that way, the inclusion in the DiGA-index was possible. The decision was based on the study report of the project published on MONARCH-Qucosa. An English version was published with license CC BY 4.0 in the “Journal of Medical Internet Research”. The successful registration in the DiGA-index enables now the assumption of costs for the therapy by the health insurance for a number of insured persons. (Dr. Tobias Mayer-Roth)
By the publication of a study regarding the research data management (RDM) at German universities in a Diamond-Open-Access-journal, the research project serves as model in the field of economics. The journal “M@n@gement” is the first Open-Access-journal for management, strategy and organizational theory. The publication in this journal sets an example for a consequently open scientific culture. For the first time, the article links the analysis of research data management to a critical perspective on the “neo-liberal university”. Of significant importance is the result that the ways of implementing Open Data practices is determined by the different subject cultures. RDM is characterized by competing institutional logics and designed by tensions between transparency, efficiency and competition ideals. The study opens the forum for new discussions and proves that highest scientific quality, methodical transparency and unrestricted access are compatible and being able to strengthen each other. (Christian M. Huber)
The Meta-Study regarding macroeconomic effects of conventional financial politics (MORPEP META-CMP) is probably the first meta-analysis in the field of macroeconomics which includes a comprehensive public documentation. From the pre-registration of the analytic plan, the AI-driven literature search (10,714 studies), the documentation of the data search and the coding instructions, the version check of all raw data, the intermediate steps of the elaboration of data sets, the data extraction up to the final analysis all information are accessible for the public. The example demonstrates impressively how meta-analyses may be implemented in a transparent and reproducible manner. The experiences are shared beyond the subject area and serve as orientation for the research community. (Dr. Franz Prante/ Prof. Gechert)
The digital, commented and from a historical-critical perspective driven edition of the novel “Ahasver” (1981) of Stefan Heym represents a valuable contribution to the dissemination of this significant literary work. The project provides for the first time comprehensive insights in the state of documentation and includes detailed comments and analyses. The project provides low-threshold and intuitive access opportunities for varied groups of users. The Open Access entry is possible via the three sections textual level, communication level and deliverance level. Target groups are the philologic community as well as all interested readers. (Tobias Frank)
The anthology regarding Chemnitz as Capital of Culture 2025. Sociospatial investigations describes the research contribution of Chemnitz University of Technology to the year of Capital of Culture and transfers scientific results dealing with the theme to the grand public. It includes local civic activities and shows the strong commitment of Chemnitz University of Technology for the city, the region and the event. The communicative manner of Open Science implemented here enables the society to take part in research and to profit from different expertise. In addition, chances for societal dialogue are opened which is particularly in times of growing scepticism towards science of high importance and may enable to strengthen trust in research. The volume was published Open Access via the Digitization Program of the State of Saxony. (Dr. Ulf Bohmann & Jun.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Laux)
Research project regarding the acceptance of second-hand products (as gift). The results discover a societal habitude being opposed to second-hand gifts and explore situations when consumers are nonetheless willing to give second-hand products as a gift. Materials, data, analytic codes and reports of results can be made openly accessible and findable by provision on Open Science Framework (OSF), the assignment of metadata and prospectively DOIs. The OSF-project is designed in a way to make it internationally comprehensible and easily usable. The files are stored in a structured way and named. Analytic codes in the openly available programming language R assure that analyses are interoperable and reproducible. In addition, pre-registrations enable a separation of confirmatory and explorative analyses. (Juliane Weidenhagen)
The project „With LLMs towards informative metadata” addresses the crucial challenge of working with open data. In the best case, those are described in a manner to be findable and reusable for all. Within the project, open language models (Open Source LLMs) are used for generating automatically DCAT-complying metadata. This reduces manual efforts, enhances the quality and consistency and makes open data easier findable for administration, research and civic society. The activity links Open Access, Open Data and Open Source in an ideal way. The approach is very well reproducible and easily transferable on different application scenarios (repositories, OER…). (Björn-Lennart Eger)
For the project „To know, what goes wrong”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), 5 experiments in total were implemented during the last 3 years having for objective to get to know more about the human perception and acting in a transparent and reproducible way. In that way, comprehensive, multimodal and high-definition time series of behavioral data are made accessible on a field where normally exclusively aggregated data are available. At the same time, detailed analytic scripts and descriptions are made available enabling to work with datasets independently, whether in other contexts, with other analysis or modelling approaches or for replication. This is particularly valuable because the measuring data were raised with very precise, specialized high-tech equipment and high personal resources. In addition, the publication of preprints provides a direct access to state-of-the-art research and makes the publication process transparent at the same time. (Dr. Karl Kopiske)
The project BioFab Vending – Sustainable 3D-printing from Organic Waste transforms all-day kitchen waste in biodegradable one-way products, such as cups, plates and spoons. The fully-automatic hardware-system sorts out by means of sensors and image-processing appropriate waste, dries and shreds them, mixes them with biodegradable PLA, pelletizes them and prints the selected article in 3D. The objective consists on enhancing the circular economy, on reducing waste and on promoting sustainable consumer behavior. (Pranav Avinash Khadkotkar & Saswat Pradhan)
Within the ERC-project ACTIONS, a strategy for Open Science was developed and implemented at the Professorship for Electrochemical Sensors and Energy Storage. It includes Gold Open Access-publications, the publishing of corresponding datasets, the elaboration of an ERC-complying data-management-plan and regular trainings. To be highlighted should be the processing of datasets according to the FAIR-principles causing significant additional efforts and not being implemented in that manner on the field of natural sciences that frequently. This holistic Open Science-strategy serves as model for other researchers groups and assures evidence-based scientific work. (Dr. Markus Gößler & Prof. Dr. Karin Leistner)
The scientific publishing landscape is facing one of the greatest crises of all time. Paywalls block access to publicly funded knowledge, predatory journals flood the literature with unreliable works, and paper mills produce masses of fake studies with AI-generated data, texts, and images. These developments waste taxpayers’ money, distort research results, lead to misleading experiments, and undermine trust in science as a whole.
The Stockholm Declaration, initiated by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and published in the Royal Society Open Science, is an urgent call to action. It demands four core principles:
The academy should regain control over publications,
Reward quality instead of quantity,
Establish independent fraud detection,
Implement legal measures to protect integrity.
It is about sustainable, non-profit models like Diamond Open Access, the departure from “Publish or Perish,” and the fight against fake publications.
As a researcher, you can actively participate! Sign the Stockholm Declaration and join the global coalition for trustworthy science.
Anyone who followed our Instagram channel closely during the last exam period or was a regular visitor to the university library will certainly have seen our survey on learning habits during exam stress. We don’t want to keep the results from you, so we have summarised the votes and opinions we received in this blog post. The specific answers can be viewed in the image gallery at the end of the post.
During the examination period of the 2025 summer semester, we asked students between 21 July and 17 August 2025 about their impressions and habits during this stressful time full of exams and assignments in order to get a small snapshot of the mood and encourage some discussion. A total of eight questions were formulated for this purpose, with a new question being published every Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesdays, the question could be answered in an Instagram story; on Thursdays, a flipchart was set up in the foyer of the university library for answers to be written down, parallel to the online survey. The questions were:
Do you procrastinate during exam time?
Do you learn with or without music?
Study group or lone fighter?
What helps you relax during exam stress?
Do you learn digitally or analogue?
Morning grouch or sunshine?
Which learning place is best for you?
Do you break principles during exam time? If so, which ones?
The flipchart was used extensively throughout – for open questions, the space was almost always completely filled with answers, and for decision-making questions, an average of 345 people cast their votes. On Instagram, the response rate was heavily dependent on the wording of the question, as only three answers were received on average for open questions. Unfortunately, due to our statistical settings, we were unable to determine the exact number of votes cast on decision-making questions afterwards.
Evaluation of the results
The question ‘Morning grouch or sunshine?’ yielded a clear result: approximately two-thirds (64.5%) of participants considered themselves morning grouches, i.e. they work most productively in the afternoon or evening. In comparison, only 35.5% of participants said they were ‘sunshine’ types who use the morning to study. This distribution corresponds with our observations that there was only a moderate crowd of people in the library in the morning, while in the afternoon (almost) all workstations were occupied.
We had the impression that most of the participants were preparing for exams on their own. This assessment is confirmed by the finding that 80% of participants study alone. They probably mainly used our reading room (16%) and the open stack area (54%), which are well suited for independent work due to their quiet working atmosphere. In contrast, 20% of participants stated that they prepared for exams in study groups. If they used the library as a meeting place, they probably chose the common area (22%), whose informal atmosphere and space for exchange offer perfect conditions for this type of work. However, 8% of participants also rated our reading garden as a suitable place to study, which was ideal in the warm summer weather – and for an active break, our table tennis table was ready and waiting.
A narrow majority (52%) of participants prefer digital learning, while 48% favour analogue learning materials. A similarly close result was obtained when asked whether they learn with or without music: 52% of participants learn in silence, while 40.5% work with music in the background. For 15% of participants who used the flipchart for this question, their preference depends on the situation – this is how we interpreted the sticky dots on the dividing line between the two given answer options.
However, music is also good for relaxing or relieving frustration – depending on the genre you listen to. Music was mentioned several times as a remedy for exam stress, alongside other creative activities such as painting, drawing and knitting. Some distracted themselves with games or entertainment shows such as Little Britain and Mr Bean, while others spent time with family and friends. Other participants became active to clear their heads, for example through sport, walks, dancing or shopping. Classic remedies were also mentioned, such as eating, soft drinks, any form of caffeine and good old procrastination – who isn’t familiar with that? During exam periods, even tidying up, doing laundry and taking glass to the glass collection container can be fun – or you can scroll through social media until you realise with a shock how quickly time has passed. When stress becomes too much, some participants find it helpful to give free rein to their feelings by crying or losing their temper. Sometimes, sarcasm seems to be one of the only things that helps, as illustrated by the response ‘de-registration’. In addition to the remedies already mentioned, breaks were very important for many participants, as expressed in the following answers: breaks, planning time for oneself, slow mornings, power naps, switching off and getting enough sleep.
But it seems that the very things that help against exam stress are often neglected. This is confirmed by the results of the question “Do you break principles during exam time? If so, which ones?‘: Although breaks were considered very important, they are sometimes overlooked during exam stress, with leisure time and sleep also having to subordinate to the workload. Health also comes second, as evidenced by skipping workout sessions or unhealthy eating habits. Some participants also resort to a calming cigarette when stressed.
Perhaps you recognise yourself in some of the answers and have picked up some new ideas for dealing with exam stress. We hope you got through the exam period well and were able to recharge during the semester break. We wish you all the best for the new semester and remember that many other students feel the same way during stressful times. 🙂
Last but not least: Many thanks to all participants who took the time to answer the questions!
Picture gallery: Distribution of votes and answers
AI technologies are increasingly being integrated in scientific databases. We have summarized the advantages and disadvantages of AI technologies in databases and explain, how this option can be used effectively.
In addition to content summaries and the in-depth exploration of documents, the use of AI in scientific databases also involves a Natural Language Search (NLS). This search mode is an (optional) component of the Simple or Advanced Search and allows search queries to be formulated in everyday language.
The NLS mode uses Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to understand the intent and contextual clues in a query. This function is particularly beneficial for less experienced database users.
As an example, we have tested the use of Natural Language Search in the Ebsco database Academic Search Premier. In addition to the usual search modes, you can also select NLS in the simple search.
The query entered is displayed above the result list as a search string with linked search terms (show refined query). However, the search is only carried out within simple search mode, which means that important search results could be overlooked. An advanced search provides a more detailed overview.
Due to the simple search mode, formal search criteria or filters are not recognized at the moment. Here are two examples of NLS search queries and their counterparts.
Example 1: “Show all articles from 2020 that contain the keyword automation in the abstract”. This is transformed into a search string as follows: automation AND (abstract) AND (2020).
Example 2: “I need articles on climate change that were published between 2020 and today for a research paper I am writing” is transformed into the search string: ((climate change OR global warming) AND (article OR research) AND (2020 OR 2021 OR 2022 OR 2023)).
Filters such as “Source Type” or “Publication Date” are not recognized. Furthermore, in example 2, the time period is not set to include 2024 or 2025, although the keyword “today” was used. It could be due to the status of the training data for the AI. This can also lead to important search results being overlooked.
The NLS search finds a maximum of two alternative search terms for one search aspect. Deeper filtering, e.g. to limit results to articles from a specific journal (publication), is not possible in the NLS.
Of course, AI technologies in databases are constantly evolving, so this information can quickly become outdated.
Another database that uses AI technology to support the research process is Statista. Here, the “Research AI” tab offers the option to search in natural language (except for the content of Consumer Insights and Company Insights). There are examples of prompts that can help you to interact effectively with the AI. In Statista, the results found are summarized by the Large Language Model (LLM) Claude 3 Sonnet and the sources used are indicated below the summary.
Unfortunately, this database does not provide the search terms to track how and where searches were carried out. Possible follow-up questions are suggested to users for further exploration of the topic.
Other databases that already use AI to support searches are Web of Science (Smart Search: free of charge & already available; Web of Science Research Assistant: fee-based, not yet included in the license), ScienceDirect (ScienceDirect AI: fee-based, not yet included in the license) and Scopus (Scopus AI, fee-based, not yet included in the license).
The rules of prompting (entering a query) can also be helpful for database searches. In particular, the query should be formulated clearly and precisely and avoid unnecessary filler words.
As this topic is highly discussed and very much evolving, information can quickly become outdated. Please also check the websites of the providers mentioned and contact our information desk if you have any questions.
