Abstract: Open Science is the trend that aims to make scientific research and its dissemination available to all levels of the society, amateur or professional. It is considered the future of Scientific Research, and all the research institutions are transitioning towards Open Science. In Europe, European Open Science Cloud is fostering the transition towards it by creating a set of rules and guidelines to be followed to make Research Data accessible by all EU researchers through interoperable FAIR data. From all the European Countries transitioning towards Open Science, Balkan countries are newly joining the transition. This is especially true for Albanian Institutions. In this dissertation, Open Science is analyzed in detail. Starting from what is Open Science and moving on to Open Access, all key components of Open Science are explained. Open Data is also described and compared to FAIR data. Open Source is also described and the concept of Digital Repositories is detailed, as a key element in storing research data. Storing research data is an important task for Open Science. Next, the European view on Open Science is introduced with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), moving to the most used Research Data Digital Repositories. EOSC defines the guidelines to be followed in Europe to be compliant for future collaboration in Open Science, thus a complete understanding of EOSC is necessary to continue the work. After that, the current state of Open Science in Balkan countries is captured, focusing on identifying the stages in the transition to Open Science and main problems faced by Balkan universities. To do so, a questionnaire is distributed to all relevant institutions and analyzed in detail. Key findings are found and the next steps are planned. The careful analysis illustrates the need for the Albanian Open Science Cloud (AOSC). The goal of AOSC is to make Albanian Science open and to help Albania join the EOSC initiative. A prototype deployed in Albania is presented, following the European standards set by European Open Science Cloud. Albanian-CRIS is the repository that will help the build of Albanian Open Science 3 Cloud, to follow the transition to Open Science, and to join EOSC. The data structure of the repository is illustrated. The analysis also indicates a need for an Open Science Policy to be implemented in Albanian Universities. The policy is presented and is taken into consideration by Albanian Research Institutions for implementation. The Open Access Mandate aspires to an Open Science transition and considers it as a critical component in enhancing the relevance of research on the Albanian community. The intention of Albania’s first Open-Science Policy and Open Access Digital Repository is to make research data FAIR and make knowledge publicly open to all Albanian researchers. In conclusion, this dissertation describes the detailed transition of Albanian Universities into Open Science and the next steps taken to foster the future of the research.
RESEARCH INFORMATION SYSTEM SERVICES FOR THE OPEN SCIENCE CLOUD
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