The focus of the current issue 1-2/2019 of GMS MEDIZIN – BIBLIOTHEK – INFORMATION is on open access at medical universities. The authors in this issue are Beate Rusch, Julia Boltze, Julia Alexandra Goltz-Fellgiebel & Hedda Staub (Deep Green – Deep Gold: open access transformation – development and perspectives), Ursula Arning, Ulrich Blortz, Beate Brüggemann-Hasler, Gabriele Herrmann-Krotz, Elisabeth Müller & Ursula Zängl (ZB MED: an academic library as an engine for open access), Jasmin Schmitz (Quality assurance for open access journals and predatory publishing), Ursula Flitner & Steffi Grimm (Launching open access services at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. A practice report), Katrin Falkenstein-Feldhoff & Katrin Wibker (Open access at the University Library Duisburg-Essen: focus on medicine). Gregor Steinrisser-Allex & Kerstin Grossmaier-Stieg (Open access at the Medical University of Graz – therapeutic decisions caught between research and clinical practice), Annette Spremberg, Markus Schmiel & Kristina Hartmann (Open access at Hannover Medical School: practical experience report of the library), Astrid Vieler & Claudia Wöckel (From information provider to research service provider – shifting the perception of library through open access at the medicine and sciences library of the Leipzig University), Karin Eckert & Stefanus Schweizer (Open at the University and University Medical Center in Mainz), Oliver Obst (Researchers in the midst of open access and DEAL negotiations. Part 1: open access activities), Noell Hennecke, Ute Grimmel-Holzwarth & Diana Mader (A spot on open access at the medical faculty of the University of Tübingen), Bruno Bauer, Helmut Dollfuß & Daniel Formanek (Open access at the Medical University Vienna: status and prospect from the perspective of the library) and Diana Klein (Open access from the point of view of medicine at the University Library of Würzburg). Furthermore this focus issue features articles from Iris Reimann (German MLA (AGMB) News), Bruno Bauer, Helmut Dollfuß & David Frank (AGMork group Austrian Medical Librarians (AGMB.AT): Report on the eeting 2018 and the 9 meeting 2019), Oliver Obst (Use of tablet computers for the study of medicine. Part 3: the project easystudium), Julian Hirt, Stefanie Neyer & Thomas Nordhausen (Comprehensive literature searches – an overview) and Bruno Bauer (The Medical Librarian’s Bibliography 2018).