ZBW – Leibniz Information Center for Economics

What ZBW – Leibniz Information Center for Economics does

ZBW – Leibniz Information Center for Economics is Germany's national library for economics and business studies and the world's largest specialized library in the discipline. Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Kiel with a second location in Hamburg, ZBW operates as a public-law foundation (Stiftung) within the Leibniz Association, jointly funded by the German federal ministry (BMBF) and the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. Its core users are academic researchers, students, doctoral candidates, and faculty in economics and business studies, alongside 400+ German libraries and scientific institutions that participate in its consortium.

The organization's technology stack centers on EconBiz, a global discovery portal providing access to over 12 million economic publications; EconStor, a DSpace-based Open Access repository; the STW Thesaurus for Economics (6,000+ standardized subject headings, 22,000+ entry terms, distributed as CC BY 4.0 RDF); and a Rosetta-based long-term digital archive jointly operated with TIB and ZB MED, holding Core Trust Seal, Nestor Seal, and Data Seal of Approval certifications. Supporting tooling includes da|ra (research data registration), ReproCheck (reproducibility verification), ROARA (research artifact discovery), REPOD (policy document repository), and the Connect & Collect (CoCo) interlibrary resource sharing service. AI is applied to automated subject indexing across the corpus.

ZBW's revenue is anchored in public appropriations, supplemented by consortium licensing fees from 400+ institutions, document delivery and interlibrary loan fees (subito, GBV), and project-specific federal funding such as the OLEcon Diamond Open Access initiative. Services are offered free of charge to individual end users, while institutional access is mediated through negotiated consortial licenses. Knowledge transfer is delivered through the annual Open Science Conference, ZBW Podcast, ZBW MediaTalk blog, newsletter, online seminars, and two physical Learning Spaces in Kiel and Hamburg. The Hamburg office is scheduled for relocation to the Hamburg University Quarter around 2027.

Name

ZBW – Leibniz Information Center for Economics

Legal name

ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft

Website

https://zbw.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1946

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

ZBW – Leibniz Information Center for Economics is Germany's national library for economics and the world's largest in the discipline. It serves academic researchers, students, and 400+ German libraries through EconBiz, EconStor, the STW Thesaurus, and a certified digital preservation infrastructure.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Research Library Services

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (51921), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (519), Periodical Publishers (513120)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721), Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Archives, Libraries & Institutional Access Platforms (MPAJAMAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Business, Economics & Management Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAF), Knowledge Management & Scientific Collaboration / Literature Intelligence (HLAGAJAN)

Keywords

• Academic research library
• Digital preservation services
• Open access publishing
• Consortium licensing
• Research data management

Headquarters

HQ city

Kiel

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Public Funding: As a member of the Leibniz Association, ZBW receives joint funding from the German federal government (BMBF) and the federal states (Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg). This forms the core operational funding.
2. ZBW Consortium Licensing: The ZBW Consortium negotiates license agreements for information sources in economics for over 400 libraries and scientific institutions in Germany, generating revenue through consortium membership fees.
3. Document Delivery Services: Delivery of documents to home, workplace, or library of choice for users. Includes interlibrary loan services.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

ZBW – Leibniz Information Center for Economics operates as a national research library and information infrastructure provider for the economic and social sciences. It curates EconStor (an open-access repository of working papers and scholarly literature), EconBiz (a discovery portal for economics literature), and the STW Thesaurus for Economics, and it runs a nationally certified digital preservation archive. The center also negotiates consortium licenses for academic journals and databases on behalf of hundreds of German research institutions, and it provides open-science tools, research-data services, and subject-specific publishing.

Product overview

ZBW – Leibniz Information Center for Economics is Germany's national library for economics and business studies, operating primarily as a distributed service platform rather than a single unified product. Its portfolio spans a core library infrastructure (EconBiz literature portal, EconStor Open Access repository, the STW Thesaurus for Economics, and a long-term Digital Archive), research and knowledge services (ZBW Labs, ZBW Open Science, ZBW Research Data, ZBW Information Organisation), scholarly publishing (Intereconomics and Wirtschaftsdienst journals, JCRE, OLEcon Diamond Open Access initiative), and community services (ZBW Consortium for license management, ZBW Learning Spaces in Kiel and Hamburg, ZBW Podcast, ZBW MediaTalk blog, and ZBW Newsletter). Key cross-cutting products include da|ra for research data registration, REPOD for policy documents, ROARA for research artifact discovery, ReproCheck for reproducibility verification, and the ZBW Open Science Conference. The digital archive system is jointly operated with TIB and ZB MED using Ex Libris Rosetta software.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• EconBiz: Portal for economics literature search, providing access to worldwide economic publications
• EconStor
• STW Thesaurus for Economics
• ZBW MediaTalk
• OLEcon (Open Library Economics)
• ZBW Podcast - The Future is Open Science

Products and services

• EconStor – Open Access Repository
• EconBiz – Literature Search Portal
• ZBW Digital Archive
• STW Thesaurus for Economics
• ZBW Journal Consortium Negotiates and administers nationwide licenses for electronic journals, databases, and e-books on behalf of German universities, research institutes, and other member institutions.
• ZBW Open Science Services (REPOD, ROARA, ReproCheck, JCRE) Suite of open-science tools that support reproducibility of economics research, including a reproducible-research repository (REPOD), a reproducibility checker (ReproCheck), and the Journal of Comments and Replications in Economics (JCRE).
• da|ra – Registration of Research Data DOI-issuing registry and publication platform for social-science and economics research data, used by researchers, data producers, and academic publishers.
• Intereconomics – Review of European Economic Policy English-language peer-reviewed journal on European economic policy, published on behalf of the ZBW and partner institutions for an international policy and academic audience.
• Wirtschaftsdienst – Journal for Economic Policy German-language peer-reviewed journal covering economic policy issues, published monthly and available in open access.
• OLEcon – Open Library Economics Open-access discovery layer that federates ZBW services and third-party economics content (working papers, datasets, software) into a single, freely available search experience.
• ZBW Learning Spaces Physical and virtual learning environments at the Hamburg and Kiel sites that provide training, workshops, and consultation on information literacy and research-data management for students and researchers.
• Connect & Collect (CoCo) Subject-based library networking program that aggregates print holdings from participating libraries to provide faster document delivery and interlibrary loan in economics.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 12 million economic science publications accessible via EconBiz
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration12 records

AI capability2 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• GASCO (German, Austrian and Swiss Consortia Organisation)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorZBW Consortium is a member of GASCO, a central platform for library consortia in the DACH region. This membership enables ZBW to participate in national and international consortium coordination for fair licensing of information sources.
• ICOLC (International Coalition of Library Consortia)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorZBW Consortium membership in ICOLC provides international coordination for library consortium activities and best practice sharing.
• Forum 13+minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerZBW is active in Forum 13+, a working group for experts in Open Access transformation negotiations, supporting the transition to Open Access.
• TIB (Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology)coreTechnology or IntegrationZBW jointly operates a digital preservation system with TIB and ZB MED. TIB hosts, operates and administers the Rosetta-based system. The three German National Libraries share costs equally.
• ZB MED (Information Centre for Life Sciences)coreTechnology or IntegrationZBW jointly operates a digital preservation system with ZB MED and TIB as one of the three German National Libraries.
• nestor (Competence Network for Long-Term Preservation)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerZBW is active in nestor, the German-speaking competence network for digital preservation, and participates in preservation planning and best practice development.
• Open Preservation FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerZBW participates in the internationally active Open Preservation Foundation for digital preservation best practices.
• German-speaking Rosetta User Group (DRAG)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerZBW participates in the German-speaking Rosetta User Group for shared learning and workflow optimization.
• Rosetta User Group (RUG)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerZBW participates in the international Rosetta User Group for the shared digital preservation system.
• EconBiz UserscoreOthersThe EconBiz portal connects ZBW with researchers worldwide, enabling access to millions of economic publications and services.
• Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu KielminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerZBW is scientifically affiliated with CAU Kiel, utilizing university's mailing lists and infrastructure.
• VfS (German Association for Political Economy)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerZBW and VfS focus on Open Science initiatives, with information and explainer videos on the VfS homepage.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• JSTOR: JSTOR is a major digital library covering economics and many other disciplines, providing digitized journal back-runs. It is comparable to EconStor and EconBiz as a discovery and access platform, but operates on a paid-institutional subscription model.
• Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (German National Library): Germany's central national library covers all disciplines, providing bibliographic deposit, cataloging, and digital services. While broader in scope than ZBW, it shares the national-library mandate, public funding model, and long-term preservation role, overlapping on metadata and digital infrastructure.
• EBSCO Information Services: EBSCO is a large commercial provider of academic databases, journals, and discovery services. It overlaps with EconBiz and the ZBW Consortium on literature access and discovery, but as a commercial incumbent rather than a national infrastructure provider.

Emerging players

• SSRN (Social Science Research Network): SSRN is an early-stage and working-paper repository heavily used in economics. It overlaps with EconStor's role as an economics preprint and working-paper server, and increasingly intersects with ZBW's OLEcon Diamond OA initiative.

Direct peers

• BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine): BASE is a major multidisciplinary academic search engine operated by Bielefeld University Library, indexing more than 300 million documents. It overlaps with EconBiz as a discovery portal for scholarly literature and shares the European public-infrastructure positioning.
• TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology: TIB is one of the other two German national subject libraries within the Leibniz Association and a direct co-operator of ZBW's shared digital preservation system. It serves as a sibling institution with parallel infrastructure, research-data, and Open Science mandates, making it the closest structural peer.
• EconLit (American Economic Association): EconLit is the primary bibliographic index for economics literature, indexing journals, books, and working papers globally. It is a direct complement to EconBiz on the literature-discovery side and is frequently co-marketed alongside ZBW services in academic settings.
• ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences: ZB MED is the third national subject library in the Leibniz Association, jointly operating the Rosetta-based preservation system with ZBW and TIB. Comparable in scope, funding model, and role as a discipline-specific national library and research data infrastructure provider.
• RePEc (Research Papers in Economics): RePEc is a decentralized index and working-paper registry specifically for economics literature. It is integrated with ZBW's EconStor and EconBiz, serving the same researcher community with literature discovery and Open Access dissemination.

Others

• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals): DOAJ is a community-curated directory of open-access journals, used by libraries to evaluate OA titles. It is closely aligned with ZBW's OLEcon and ECONStor activities around Open Access journal discovery and metadata for economics.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/zbw_news

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ZBW – Leibniz Information Center for Economics