Category Archives: oa.eifl

Read & Publish Open Access agreement with EIFL – The Company of Biologists

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“Our 2021-2023 Read & Publish agreement with Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) has proved a great success.

Following the renewal of our agreement, from 2024, corresponding authors in the following countries can now benefit from publishing an uncapped number of Open Access research articles in our two fully Open Access journals – Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open in addition to our hybrid journals, Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology without paying an article processing charge (APC)….”

OAI13 – The Geneva Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication | EIFL

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“The underlying theme of OAI13 – The Geneva Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication is the impact of open science principles and policy on the nature of research culture across the globe. 

The programme of talks and panel discussions takes place over five days, as follows:

4 September – Academic publishing reform. What does the future hold?
5 September – Ownership of scholarly infrastructure
6 September – Diamond Open Access
7 September – Implementing the UNESCO recommendations on Open Science
8 September – Research Evaluation…”

University of Maribor Open Science Summer School | EIFL

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“EIFL Open Access Programme (EIFL-OA) Manager Iryna Kuchma and EIFL-OA Project Coordinator Milica Ševkuši? will co-present at the Virtual pre-event: Open Science – an introduction: How can I open my research? at the University of Maribor Open Science Summer School. The Summer School in-person event takes place from 11 – 15 September 2023.

The Summer School offers students and young researchers an opportunity to learn and develop skills in the fields of research data management, open access to research results, the use of open research infrastructure, supercomputing resources and the European Open Science Cloud. More about the programme and how to apply….”

Open Science FAIR 2023 | EIFL

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“Iryna Kuchma, EIFL Open Access Programme (EIFL-OA) Manager, and Milica Ševkuši?, EIFL-OA Project Coordinator, will co-facilitate the DIAMAS project workshop ‘Improving the efficiency and quality of institutional OA publishing’ on 27 September at the 4th Open Science FAIR, organized by OpenAIRE and FECYT, from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, under the auspices of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. 

See the Open Science FAIR programme and register.”

EIFL celebrations in 2023 | EIFL

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“EIFL has lots to celebrate this year – 2023 is the 20th anniversary of EIFL as an independent organization and also the 20th anniversary of the EIFL Open Access Programme. 

We’ll be celebrating these milestones at the EIFL General Assembly (GA) in Vilnius from 17 to 21 September. This will be our first in-person GA since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. After three years of online GAs, using Zoom, it will be great to connect with our library consortium coordinators and publisher partners in-person again….”

DIAMAS deliverable: D3.1 IPSP Best Practices Quality evaluation criteria, best practices, and assessment systems for Institutional Publishing Service Providers (IPSPs) | Zenodo

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“This report outlines existing quality evaluation criteria, best practices, and assessment systems for IPSPs developed by international associations, RPOs, governments, and international databases. It also analyses academic literature on research evaluation of IPSPs, assessment criteria and indicators. The analysis matrix includes the following categories, which will also be the core components of EQSIP: 

Funding: description of the funding model, OA business model, transparency in listing all funding sources, etc. 

Ownership and governance: legal ownership, mission, and governance.

Open science practices: OA policy, copyright and licensing, open peer review, data availability, new approaches to research assessment, etc.

Editorial quality, editorial management, and research integrity.  

Technical service efficiency: technical strength, interoperability – metadata, ISSN, PIDs, machine readability, and accessible  journal website. 

Visibility, including indexation, communication, marketing and impact.

Equity, Diversity  and Inclusion (EDI): multilingualism, gender equity….”

Best practices for open access publishing | EIFL

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“The DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication) project has published a best practices report highlighting quality evaluation criteria and assessment systems for Institutional Publishing Service Providers (IPSPs).  

EIFL is a partner in the DIAMAS project, which was formed to support high-quality, sustainable, open access publishing, and to develop common standards, guidelines and practices for the Diamond institutional publishing sector. Diamond Open Access refers to a scholarly publication model in which journals and platforms do not charge fees to either authors or readers. 

Iryna Kuchma, Manager of the EIFL Open Access Programme, and Milica Ševkuši?, Project Coordinator for the EIFL Open Access Programme, co-authored this report, which is based on analyses of existing quality evaluation criteria, best practices and assessment systems for IPSPs developed by international associations, Research Performing Organizations, governments,and international databases. The report also analyzes academic literature on research evaluation of IPSPs, assessment criteria and Indicators.

The recommendations and tips cover seven categories, which are also the core components of the Extensible Quality Standard for Institutional Publishing (EQSIP). Also included in the report is a self-assessment checklist for IPSPs which you can use to see how your publishing practices measure up….”

New partnerships – a Right to Research in Africa | EIFL

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“A major conference co-organized by EIFL, with national and international partners, took place in South Africa on 23-27 January 2023. ‘A Right to Research in Africa? A Week of Debates on Copyright and Access to Knowledge’ was attended by over 280 legal academics, researchers, librarians, policy-makers and Geneva-based diplomats from over a dozen countries in Africa and beyond. It was the first time these diverse groups, connected by a common interest in copyright, came together to hear and to learn from each other about the copyright framework needed to support modern research.

During the conference, researchers from South Africa, Kenya and Senegal described their first-hand experiences using digital technologies to address important questions on topics such as African languages, artificial intelligence and health, and the roadblocks they sometimes face due to copyright and licensing restrictions. 

Academics and practising lawyers analyzed the legal framework, answering questions on the rights of researchers in using copyright-protected works. Government officials provided insights into the policy-making environment, copyright reforms underway in Africa and developments internationally at WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization). The cross-cutting discussions helped to build partnerships, create a shared understanding of the issues and the importance of balanced copyright laws in supporting cutting-edge research in Africa.

Interviews conducted with researchers and senior policymakers from Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda have been made available online, along with the full conference sessions….”

Open science train-the-trainer tips | EIFL

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“Enhancing open science and open research skills by organizing train-the-trainer activities, creating training materials, and advocating for research incentives and structures that support and promote the acquisition of open science and open research skills are among EIFL’s strategic goals. 

But bringing together trainers from almost 40 EIFL partner countries in Africa, Asia and Europe is a challenge – in-person meetings are too expensive. So we opted for free online meetings although we knew these would be challenging too, because it is difficult to find a time to suit many different time zones simultaneously, internet connectivity varies, and people joining online meetings from the workplace or home may get interrupted by work priorities and day-to-day life.

To minimize these difficulties, the bootcamp comprised synchronous meetings – live on Zoom – and asynchronous learning on OpenPlato, which is OpenAIRE’s Moodle e-learning management platform. OpenPlato had been used successfully in OpenAIRE train-the-trainer bootcamps that we helped to co-organize in 2022.”

EIFL support energizes Ethiopia OA journals sector | EIFL

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“With support from EIFL, Addis Ababa University Libraries (AAUL) has increased access to and visibility of research from academic institutions across Ethiopia by upgrading the national open access publishing platform, Ethiopian Journals Online (EJOL), and adding 21 new journals from 10 institutions to the platform. 

As part of the ‘Enhancing Ethiopian Journals Online’ project, AAUL has improved the look and feel of EJOL, with customized pages for each journal, including updated journal profiles and useful information for authors and reviewers (editorial policies, author guidelines, reviewer guidelines). 

By configuring editorial workflows, the project has made the platform more efficient, and integration of DOIs has made journals and articles easier to locate. 

The project team also provided training for librarians, journal editors and editorial staff to familiarize them with the upgraded journals platform and its new functionalities. 

In addition, 20 journal editors took part in workshops on the use of the publishing software, Open Journal Systems (OJS), and  the eligibility standards and criteria required for indexing in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).  Journal editors also received journal policy templates.”

New national open access repository in Armenia | EIFL

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“With support from EIFL, the National Library of Armenia (NLA) has improved access to its digital materials – open access Armenian theses and dissertations, books and the Bulletin of Armenian Libraries – through the creation of a new repository.

The new repository, which uses DSpace 7.3 software, will be part of national open science infrastructure currently under development by the Ministry of Education and Science, which is also drafting a national open science policy….”

Strengthening open access publishing in Kenya | EIFL

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“A project supported by EIFL has strengthened understanding of open access publishing at 46 institutions in Kenya. It has led to increased open access journal publishing capacity and gained greater recognition for open access publishing at institutions across the country. The project raised the importance of meeting open access journal quality requirements developed by the Directory of Open Access Journals.

The project was implemented by our partner library consortium, the Kenya Library and Information Services Consortium (KLISC), which worked with institutions that wanted to publish their print journals online in open access. The project set up Open Journal Systems (OJS) publishing platforms at 17 institutions.

Some of the participating institutions have already published the current issues of their journals in open access using OJS, such as  the African Journal of Science, Technology and Social Sciences published by Meru University, and the International Research Journal of Rongo University (IJORU). Strathmore University has moved three journals online, and Kirinyaga university has moved two journals online.  The National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) has uploaded not only current, but also back issues of the African Journal of Alcohol and Drug Abuse (AJADA)  on their OJS platform….”

Strengthening open access publishing in Kenya | EIFL

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“A project supported by EIFL has strengthened understanding of open access publishing at 46 institutions in Kenya. It has led to increased open access journal publishing capacity and gained greater recognition for open access publishing at institutions across the country. The project raised the importance of meeting open access journal quality requirements developed by the Directory of Open Access Journals.

The project was implemented by our partner library consortium, the Kenya Library and Information Services Consortium (KLISC), which worked with institutions that wanted to publish their print journals online in open access. The project set up Open Journal Systems (OJS) publishing platforms at 17 institutions.

Some of the participating institutions have already published the current issues of their journals in open access using OJS, such as  the African Journal of Science, Technology and Social Sciences published by Meru University, and the International Research Journal of Rongo University (IJORU). Strathmore University has moved three journals online, and Kirinyaga university has moved two journals online.  The National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) has uploaded not only current, but also back issues of the African Journal of Alcohol and Drug Abuse (AJADA)  on their OJS platform….”

EIFL support boosts open access in Ghana | EIFL

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“A project supported by EIFL has led to the establishment of seven new institutional open access repositories at institutions in Ghana. The project also improved repositories at nine institutions and strengthened understanding of open access journal publishing at 19 institutions. 

Implemented by our national partner library consortium, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH) in 2021/22, the project aimed to increase accessibility and visibility of research at CARLIGH member institutions….”

EIFL support boosts open access in Ghana | EIFL

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“A project supported by EIFL has led to the establishment of seven new institutional open access repositories at institutions in Ghana. The project also improved repositories at nine institutions and strengthened understanding of open access journal publishing at 19 institutions. 

Implemented by our national partner library consortium, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH) in 2021/22, the project aimed to increase accessibility and visibility of research at CARLIGH member institutions….”