Operating Open Science Services in Practice - Lessons from the German Specialized Information Service-Infrastructure.

Open Science is increasingly dependent on collaborative infrastructures that are both discipline-specific and can interoperate across institutional and national boundaries. These infrastructures require coordination mechanisms to balance the characteristics of disciplinary specificity with cross-domain interoperability. In Germany, the Working Group of Specialized Information Services (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Fachinformationsdienste, AG FID) provides such a collaborative framework by linking discipline-oriented Specialized Information Services (Fachinformationsdienste, FID) into a structured network for exchange, coordination, as well as joint development. In the geosciences, the Specialized Information Service for Geosciences (FID GEO) has supported the research community for almost a decade by providing publication services and consultancy, helping researchers navigate a complex and constantly evolving infrastructure landscape.

FID GEO delivers sustainable publication and data services via established domain repositories. At the same time, FID GEO fosters cultural change through training, community engagement, and active participation in policy and infrastructure development. Collaboration is therefore a cornerstone of FID GEO’s work. It operates in close partnership with geoscientific societies, national infrastructures and initiatives such as the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). Acknowledging the inherently global nature of the geosciences, FID GEO also aligns its activities with international developments, aiming to synchronize national progress with global standards and best practices for data management and distribution. Acting as an interface between scientists, libraries, repositories and the world of digital data management, FID GEO supports the transformation of the publication culture in the geosciences at national and international levels. These activities, embedded within the AG FID network, clearly benefit from cross-disciplinary exchange, the development of shared standards, and coordinated advocacy. Consequently, their impact is amplified beyond a single community. Specific successes include the increased adoption of FAIR-aligned metadata practices, stronger integration with national infrastructures such as the NFDI, and greater visibility and reusability of geoscientific research outputs.

This contribution provides a critical reflection on the structural challenges shared across the FID system. The ongoing need to adjust to competing funding programs, overlapping infrastructure mandates, and the continuing expectation of “one-stop” platforms/systems means that discipline-specific services must continuously realign their portfolios as responsibilities shift to complementary funding instruments, such as dedicated digitization programs and the NFDI. While this differentiation strengthens the overall research infrastructure ecosystem, it increases the demand for coordination and complicates the long-term maintenance of established services. Rather than striving for monolithic solutions, the FID system demonstrates how distributed services based on the close integration of domain-specific communities attempt to collaborate in finding solutions for interoperable services. These solutions are based on persistent identifiers, shared (metadata) standards, and close stakeholder engagement. This contribution discusses these developments and shares the FID GEO project's experiences with regard to the potentials and challenges of operating open science infrastructures in practice.