Germany's Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the national funding body for scientific, technical and academic research has struck a licensing deal with British engineering and management academic publishers Emerald Group Publishing.

All registered students of higher education, faculty and research based government employees will now be given access to all Emerald journals online. The deal, negotiated by the Universitäts-und Stadtbibliothek Köln (USB)and Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften (IZ) provides access to content published between January 1994 and December 2005. 

Under the terms of the agreement 339 universities in Germany will gain access to Emerald titles, which include popular academic journals Management Decision, the European Journal of Marketing and engineering  title Soldering & Surface Mount Technology.