Category Archives: oa.malaysia

Preprints as a driver of open science: opportunities for Southeast Asia · Komunitas Preprint RINarxiv

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Abstract:  Southeast Asia is an emerging force of open access scholarly output. For example, Indonesia is in a tight competition with Britain as the largest publisher of open access journals and the second largest producer of open access articles in the world (according to DOAJ and the COKI OA Dashboard respectively). However, this support for open practices is not yet reflected in institutional research policies in Southeast Asian countries, which still rely on criteria influenced by world university rankings that focus on publication outputs and do not incorporate elements related to research culture, integrity, or open science. Preprints have gained increasing attention across disciplines in the last few years, but they are still not included in institutional policies in SouthEast Asia. This paper discusses the potential for preprints to be a driving force for open science and for quality and integrity in scholarly outputs from Southeast Asia. There is a fledgling preprinting culture in the region, catalyzed by the RINarxiv preprint server in Indonesia and the Malaysia Open Science Platform. We argue that preprints have many advantages: opportunities for open access and for researchers to maintain copyright to their work, wide dissemination, encouraging feedback and critical thinking, and community governance. With these advantages, preprints can become a fast and open communication hub between researchers and all stakeholders in the research process. We recommend regulatory and practical steps to incorporate preprints into science policy and researchers’ practices as an effort to promote research integrity, open data and reproducibility.

Universiti Utara Malaysia Press Content Joins ScienceOpen – ScienceOpen Blog

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“Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) Press has strategically partnered with ScienceOpen to enrich its metadata and feature its publications on ScienceOpen’s interactive search and discovery platform. This is a special announcement because not only do we have a lot of new content to share with you, but we also get to highlight the success of our technical team, who worked diligently to help UUM Press streamline and enrich their publications’ metadata. Now, the addition of seven UUM Press open access journals (plus one forthcoming) and approximately 400 other titles with rich metadata are available for discovery in eight different featured collections and an encompassing Super Collection on ScienceOpen.   …”

APEC Open Science Webinar & The 2020 APEC Science Prize For Innovation, Research & Education (ASPIRE)

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The Academy of Science Malaysia (ASM), together with the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation Malaysia (MOSTI) and the International Science Council-Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ISC ROAP) is pleased to invite you to the APEC Policy Sharing Webinar on Open Science & The 2020 ASPIRE Award Ceremony. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the need for sharing of data and information at an unprecedented scale which can be fulfilled by the paradigm of Open Science. Open Science represents a new approach to the scientific process based on cooperative work and new ways of disseminating knowledge by using digital technologies and new collaborative tools to address global challenges. The Webinar is aimed to build a community of purpose that works together to identify platform governance measures and technical know-how; and serves as a medium to share best practices in APEC economies and international policies for platform governance. An APEC PPSTI Statement on Open Science will be developed during the Webinar to promote engagement and knowledge sharing among APEC Economies through Open Science. In conjunction with APEC 2020, The Webinar will also feature the award ceremony of 2020 APEC Science Prize for Innovation, Research and Education (ASPIRE). It is an annual award which recognizes young scientists who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in scientific research. The theme for this year is Biodiversity for a Prosperous Economy.

We have to write and share valid and reliable information on COVID-19

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“We, the COVID 19 Malaysian writing group, believe that all the cases and responses to the infection in Malaysia should be reported, studied and published in order to improve our knowledge and response to such infections. It is only by transparent sharing and dissemination, that proper strategies can be developed and tested, and policy installed. Reporting would also improve public awareness and dispel myths. Let us continue to work together to overcome this pandemic.”

The Unstoppable Rise of Sci-Hub: How does a new generation of researchers perceive Sci-Hub? | Impact of Social Sciences

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“How do early career researchers (ECRs) use Sci-Hub and why? In this post David Nicholas assesses early career researcher attitudes towards the journal pirating site, finding a strong preference for Sci-Hub amongst French ECRs. He raises the question, will Sci-Hub prove the ultimate disruptor and bring down the existing status quo in scholarly communications?…”

SocArXiv Papers | PERCEPTION OF POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS TOWARDS OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION IN SOME SELECTED INSTITUTIONS IN MALAYSIA

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Abstract:  This article investigates perception of postgraduate students towards open access publication in two research institutions in Malaysia. A descriptive survey was used in the study which involves 121 respondents from 500 sample population sent instrument to from both Universities. A simple random techniques was used for the study. Data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation, independent sample t-test and One-way analysis of variance tests (ANOVA) was employed to determine if there is a statistically significant mean differences in perceived usefulness and perceived effectiveness of OA publications between ages of postgraduate students. The findings revealed why postgraduate scholars should embrace Open Access publication for wider visibility and reproducibility of academic research and development. The results also shows that majority of the respondents were of mean age of 2.67 and highest age bracket was between 26-35 years. However, the sample size of the survey was quite small and further research is needed to determine if similar findings are obtained when other researchers are included in the sample.

Ministers, experts urge inclusive access and quality education through open educational resources – Malaysia Sun

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“24 February 2017On 23 February, ministers, policy makers and experts from 26 countries took part in the opening of the European Regional Consultation on Open Educational Resources (OER), held in Malta from 23 to 24 February.

In her keynote address, H.E. Dr Maja Makovec Brencic, Minister for Education, Science and Sport of Slovenia, highlighted that ‘OER have a central role to play in the Education 2030 Agenda and particularly in the framework of SDG4 (Inclusive and Quality Education). Slovenia recognizes that governments have a key fundamental responsibility for successfully implementing the 2030 Agenda.’ She noted that ‘the Education 2030 Agenda reaffirms a political commitment to establish legal and policy frameworks. It entrusts UNESCO to lead and coordinate the 2030 Education Agenda by undertaking advocacy to sustain political commitment, facilitating policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and standard setting.'”

Bioline International Official Site (site up-dated regularly)

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“Bioline International is a not-for-profit scholarly publishing cooperative committed to providing open access to quality research journals published in developing countries. BI’s goal of reducing the South to North knowledge gap is crucial to a global understanding of health (tropical medicine, infectious diseases, epidemiology, emerging new diseases), biodiversity, the environment, conservation and international development. By providing a platform for the distribution of peer-reviewed journals (currently from Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda and Venezuela), BI helps to reduce the global knowledge divide by making bioscience information generated in these countries available to the international research community world-wide….”

Open Access repositories and journals for visibility: Implications for Malaysian libraries

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Abstract:  This paper describes the growth of Open Access (OA) repositories and journals as reported by 

monitoring initiatives such as ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repositories), Open DOAR (Open 
Directory of Open Access Repositories), DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), Directory of Web 
Ranking of World Repositories by the Cybermetrics Laboratory in Spain and published literature. The 
performance of Malaysian OA repositories and journals is highlighted. The strength of OA channels 
in increasing visibility and citations are evidenced by research findings. It is proposed that libraries 
champion OA initiatives by making university or institutional governance aware; encouraging 
institutional journal publishers to adopt OA platform; collaborating with research groups to 
jumpstart OA institutional initiatives and to embed OA awareness into user and researcher 
education programmes. By actively involved, libraries will be free of permission, licensing and 
archiving barriers usually imposed in traditional publishing situation. 

The Development of Open Access Repositories in the Asia-Oceania Region: A Case Study of Three Institutions

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Abstract:  In recent years, open access models of publishing have transcended traditional modes thus enabling freer access to research. This paper takes a trans-regional approach to examining open access publishing in the Asia and Oceania region focussing on three institutions– Charles Darwin University in Australia, University of Hong Kong, and University of Malaya in Malaysia – reflecting on how each is rising, in its own individual way, to meet the range of challenges that its research communities are facing. Specifically, it focuses on open access and institutional repository development, and traces their development at each of the aforementioned institutions.

 
 The study is based on interviews conducted with staff involved with the development of each repository, and the open access collection in particular, at each of the three institutions. The findings reveal that each of the three institutions is at a different stage of development, with the University of Hong Kong repository ranked at the top within Asia; each has used a slightly different approach toward open access, and used different software to develop their repository. 
 
 The authors collate the overall experiences of each institution in open access publishing and repository development, and highlight the successes and failures that each has experienced in reaching the level that they are at today. A series of guidelines, which will be of value to institutions in the region at various levels of development, are presented.