Category Archives: oa.mena

Supporting open science in the Arab world | Research Information

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“The Arab region comprises 22 member states across the Gulf, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Although economic circumstances, and available human, physical and digital capacities vary widely across these 22 states, the region as a whole has the resources and capability to play a pivotal role in the global transition towards more accessible, sustainable and inclusive research and education models.

However, while many institutions and organisations are at the forefront of this change (for example the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and King AbdulAziz University in Saudi Arabia, the Qatar National Library and the Egyptian Knowledge Bank), there is a clear need for something more focused on the specific needs of research communities and research institutions just starting out on their journey towards openness.

That is why, at the start of 2022, the Knowledge E Foundation (a registered community interest company based in the UK) decided to develop and launch a new non-profit initiative, the Forum for Open Research in MENA (FORM) – to support the development and implementation of Open Science policies and practices in research communities and research institutions across the Arab region….”

Forum for Open Research in MENA

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“The Forum for Open Research in MENA (FORM) is a non-profit membership organisation supporting the advancement of Open Science policies and practices in research communities and institutions across the Arab region.

The Arab states have the resources and capability to play a pivotal role in the global transition towards more accessible, sustainable and inclusive research and education models. We want to support all our research communities and stakeholder groups in the journey towards a more ‘open’ world, by facilitating the exchange of actionable insights and the development of practical policies….”

IOP Publishing accelerates OA publishing in Oman with Sultan Qaboos University agreement  – IOP Publishing

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“Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and society publisher IOP Publishing (IOPP) have established a transformative agreement enabling researchers to publish their work openly for anyone to read at no cost to them. It is IOPP’s first unlimited publishing agreement in Oman supporting the University’s ambition to make scientific research accessible to as many people as possible.  

The three-year agreement allows SQU researchers unlimited open access (OA) publishing across all IOPP owned journals and most partner journals while retaining their copyright. The contract also gives unrestricted reading access to IOPP’s entire journal portfolio….”

Advancing Open Access In Scholarly Publishing: Increasing DOAJ’s Coverage in Northern Africa | May 10, 2023 | Webinar Registration

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“1-hour webinar hosted by the Forum for Open Research in MENA (F.O.R.M.) in collaboration with the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). **Limited Seats Available** **French Language Presentation** In this 1-hour webinar, Professor Kamel Belhamel (Managing editor of DOAJ), will explore the open access landscape in Northern Africa. The first half of the webinar will look at the barriers faced by scholarly publications when looking to develop and implement open access publishing practices. In the second half of this webinar, Professor Kamel will discuss the benefits for open access journals of being indexed in DOAJ, give some tips on DOAJ evaluation metrics, and explain what editorial boards can do to maximise their chances of acceptance into the index….”

The road to normalizing preprints in the MENA region

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The International Science Council in collaboration with the Forum for Open Research in the MENA region (FORM) organized a regional event on 28th February to create awareness on open science with special emphasis on normalizing preprints. In this post, Jenice Goveas and Moumita Koley share some key takeaways from the event.

 

Normalising Pre-prints: The MENA Dialogue

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“This workshop introduces participants to Open Science practices with a special focus on pre-prints in the MENA region, looking at what they offer to researchers and to the scientific community as a whole.

Pre-prints are complete written descriptions of research outputs that authors are willing to make public. They include submissions under review and those that have been rejected or not submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. While the concept of pre-prints was initially contentious, the need for rapid evaluation and dissemination of vitally important research during the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the pace of the Open Access movement and encouraged the growth of pre-print publications for rapid and open sharing of new findings and receiving feedback….”

Workshop: Open science and the dissemination of scholarly knowledge / Normalising Pre-prints: The MENA Dialogue | 28 February 2023, online | International Science Council

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“This workshop introduces participants to Open Science practices with a special focus on pre-prints in the MENA region, looking at what they offer to researchers and to the scientific community as a whole. Pre-prints are complete written descriptions of research outputs that authors are willing to make public. They include submissions under review and those that have been rejected or not submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. While the concept of pre-prints was initially contentious, the need for rapid evaluation and dissemination of vitally important research during the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the pace of the Open Access movement and encouraged the growth of pre-print publications for rapid and open sharing of new findings and receiving feedback….”

F.O.R.M. – Panel 3: Open Science Capacity Building in MENA: Plans and Policies – YouTube

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“The Forum for Open Research in MENA (F.O.R.M.) was organised by the Knowledge E Foundation, Knowledge E, and Gulf Conferences, with the support of our Advisory Partner UNESCO, our Host Partner EKB, and our Patron ALECSO. It brought together leading international experts and key regional stakeholders, along with open-source and open-resource solutions and technology providers, to support the advancement of Open Science. F.O.R.M. was held on the 26th-27th of October (2022) to coincide with the global Open Access Week initiative. We hope this will become an annual event hosted in a different country within the MENA region each year.

You can now access speaker presentations on our Zenodo community: https://zenodo.org/communities/forum4… Speakers: Dr. Batool Almarzouq, Honorary research fellow at the University of Liverpool, the lead of the Open Science community Saudi Arabia (OSCSA) and a Content Subject Matter Expert (SME) in NASA’s Transform to Open Science (TOPS) – “NASA’s Transform to Open Science (TOPS): A Toolkit for Fostering Open Science Practices” Dr. Nada Messaikeh (Alliance Manchester Business School) and Reem Jamil Younis (UAE Ministry of Education) – “Open science in education sector research, how can Governments and H.E Institutions collaborate to promote relevance, accessibility, and sustainability of research endeavors?” Dr. Tosin Ekundayo, Synergy University Dubai – “Open Data: A National Data Governance Strategy for Open Science and Economic Development” ”

Forum for Open Research in MENA

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“Bringing together leading international experts and key regional stakeholders, the Forum for Open Research in MENA (F.O.R.M.) is endorsed by UNESCO, and supports the advancement of Open Research across the Middle East and North Africa by facilitating the exchange of actionable insights and the development of practical policies.

The movement towards Open Science is vitally important to ensure the long-term sustainability and inclusivity of our education systems and scholarly communities. However, Open Science is also a complex and multi-faceted concept, and it can be difficult to know how and where to start. The problem is further compounded by the negative publicity surrounding predatory publishing practices and the mistrust of Open Access which this has engendered, together with issues surrounding funding allocation and the disparity in subject-field approaches.

Providing a forum for librarians, researchers, government policy makers, universities and international experts to discuss and debate key themes and issues, F.O.R.M. will help to address these issues and support the advancement of Open Research across the region.”

Call for Papers – Forum for Open Research in MENA

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“The Forum for Open Research in MENA (F.O.R.M.) is being organised by the Knowledge E Foundation and Gulf Conferences to support and promote Open Science across the Middle East and North Africa. Endorsed and supported by UNESCO, our Advisory Partner, this event is designed to foster awareness and understanding of Open Science and its benefits, and facilitate the exchange of ideas and actionable insights. Bringing together leading international experts and key regional stakeholders, along with open-source and open-resource solutions and technology providers, our goal is to provide a forum for MENA librarians, researchers, government policy makers and higher-education institutions to exchange ideas and start new cross-regional collaborations developing Open Research policies and infrastructure.

The movement towards Open Science is vitally important to ensuring the long-term sustainability and inclusivity of our education systems and scholarly communities. However, Open Science is also a complex and multi-faceted concept, and it can be difficult to know how and where to start. The problem is compounded by the negative publicity surrounding predatory publishing practices and the mistrust of Open Access which this has engendered in the MENA region (and across the world), together with issues surrounding funding allocation and the disparity in subject-field approaches.

F.O.R.M. seeks to address these issues by encouraging discussion and debate amongst leading regional and global stakeholders, facilitating the development of structural frameworks and practical policies. We hope to encourage participants to consider all the issues surrounding equitable Open Scholarship and Open Science practices, by bringing together industry leaders and global experts, and providing a mixture of outstanding talks, strategy sessions, networking opportunities and workshops….”

Regional and international experts come together to discuss open access research in MENA | ZAWYA MENA Edition

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“International research and education leaders will come together today to discuss the accessibility and visibility of research in the MENA region.  

The free symposium Towards a more knowledgeable world: Open Access research in MENAis being held during the annual global Open Access week. It will consist of a series of talks by leading regional stakeholders and global organisations about the implementation and benefits of open research practices.  …”

Librarians as gate-openers in open access publishing: A case study in the United Arab Emirates – ScienceDirect

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The advent of open access (OA) has changed the scholarly communication landscape resulting in disruption of traditional relationships between different stakeholders. Thus, the gatekeeping role of academic librarians has been impaired. However, by assuming the role of gate-openers, librarians have become facilitators of OA uptake in the United Arab Emirates. Results of the UAE librarians survey show that they are aware of OA routes and predatory journals; they are using different instruction methods to educate users on OA resources and publishing; and they harness OA resources along the traditional subscription-based products. Readers of international library journals need to be aware of efforts undertaken by their peers to advance OA mandate outside the Eastern European and North American context, often dominating scholarly communication studies.

Digital Library of the Middle East Implements Major Upgrades • CLIR

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“The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Qatar National Library, and Stanford University Libraries today announced several major improvements to the Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME).

The public, open DLME platform, released in July 2020, aggregates digital records of published materials, documents, maps, artifacts, audiovisual recordings, and more from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Viewers can access nearly 134,000 digital records of materials spanning more than 12 millennia held in museums, libraries, and archives worldwide. The site is fully navigable in Arabic and English….”

Digital Library of the Middle East – DLME

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“The Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME) offers free and open access to the rich cultural legacy of the Middle East and North Africa by bringing together collections from a wide range of cultural heritage institutions. Developed by an engineering team from CLIR and Stanford Libraries, the platform federates and makes accessible data about collections from around the world….”

Statement on Collection Development, Access, and Equity in the time of COVID-19

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“As is the case in Latin America and the Caribbean and elsewhere across the Global South, the majority of publications from the Middle East (Southwest Asia), North Africa and the diasporas are print-only, and are not available in electronic formats. Therefore, collecting policies which prefer electronic acquisitions at the expense of print risk excluding from their growing collections a significant portion of the cultural and scholarly production of these regions. Such policies threaten the diversity of representation in library collections by further marginalizing already marginalized voices….

We are particularly concerned that research materials and resources will be concentrated in a handful of wealthy, often private, institutions.  Commitment to area studies in general and to Middle East studies librarianship in particular is also instrumental for maintaining diverse and inclusive collections that reflect and support the wide ranging scholarly and creative interests of our users.”