RESEARCH INFORMATION SYSTEM SERVICES FOR THE OPEN SCIENCE CLOUD

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. 

Open science included in new Serbian law | EIFL

“The Serbian government has passed a new law on science and research that recognizes open science as a fundamental principle of science and research.

The new Law on Science and Research, passed on 8 July 2019, confirms Serbia’s commitment to open science. It comes just a year after the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (MESTD), the main national funder of research in Serbia, adopted a national open science policy, the Platform for Open Science, mandating open science to all publicly funded research….”

Open Access publishing in Serbia and Western Balkan Open Science Working Group : OpenAIRE blog

“Supporting Open Access journal editors and publishers in Serbia and participating in the Western Balkan Working Group on Open Science….SCIndeks is the central hub of the integrated system of quality-controlled scientific publishing in Serbia. The SCIndeks team developed guides and templates to help editorial boards of Serbian Open Access journals to comply with the “new” DOAJ inclusion criteriaon publication policy and licensing. New functionalities in editor services were implemented and SCIndeks submitted DOAJ application forms for 49 Open Access journals. 35 of them have already been accepted by DOAJ in the past two months. OpenAIRE collaborates with SCIndeks on the non-APC FP7 Open Access Publishing Pilot project.

A comprehensive study “Open Access Journals in Serbia: Policies and Practices” by Milica Ševkuši?, Zorica Jankovi? and Aleksandra Kužet has been recently published and includes good practice advice and policy and licensing templates that could be of great help to journal editors. This study is the result of the EIFL funded project “Revisiting Open Access Journal Policies and Practices in Serbia”, implemented by the Serbian Library Consortium for Coordinated Acquisition – KoBSON. Also see Milica Ševkuši?’s article “Defining the Editorial Policies of Open Access Journals in Serbia and the Role of Librarians in This Process” in ?ITALIŠTE: the scientific journal on theory and practice of librarianship.

Open access, Open Research Data and Open Science are on the agenda of the Western Balkan Regional Working Group on Open Science that met in Brussels on July, 6th, 2017. It mapped the existing e-infrastructure and made plans for further development in the Western Balkan economies, in order to support Open Science e-infrastructure in the region. The meeting outlined the strategic context of Open Science in Europe and the key role of the e-infrastructure development in the European Union and the Western Balkans. OpenAIRE NOAD in Serbia Biljana Kosanovic participated in the meeting and is a member of the Western Balkan Regional Working Group on Open Science….”

Regional Cooperation Council | Western Balkans Joins the European Open Science Agenda

“Seven Western Balkans’ economies joined the European Union (EU) family in pursuing the EU Open Science Agenda at the Open Data and Access in Science meeting organised by the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) on the margins of the International Open Data Conference (IODC) on 6-7 October 2016.”