EIFL welcomes the news that four more universities in EIFL partner countries, one in Ethiopia and three in Serbia, have adopted open access and open science policies.

This brings the total number of institutions in EIFL partner countries that have adopted open access and open science policies to 148.

The new policies require researchers to deposit their research in institutional open access repositories, subject to copyright permissions, and will make the universities’ research output freely available online, ensuring that it reaches the global scientific community.

OPEN SCIENCE POLICIES IN SERBIA

Among the three universities in Serbia is University of Belgrade, the oldest and largest university in the country, and one of the most important educational and research centres in Southeast Europe. The university’s new policy, titled ‘Open Science Platform of the University of Belgrade’, affirms the concept of open science, which provides researchers and the public with free and up-to-date access to reviewed scientific publications, primary data generated during research, and other research results, with the aim of accelerating exchange of scientific information. See the policy, adopted in March 2019, here (in Serbian).

The other two universities in Serbia that have adopted open science policies are:

• University of Kragujevac, policy adopted in December 2018. See the policy kg.ac.rs/Docs/platforma_za_otvorenu_nauku.pd here (in Serbian).
• University of Criminal Investigation and Police Studies, policy adopted in January 2019. See the policy here (in Serbian).

The three universities are the first to adopt policies that are compliant with the national open science policy adopted by the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (MESTD) in July 2018. The MESTD policy mandates deposit of all publicly-funded research in open access repositories, and recommends open access to research data. The policy also states that research institutions should adopt institutional open science policies, using the national policy as a framework.

NEW POLICIES IN ETHIOPIA

In Ethiopia, Hawassa University in the city of Hawassa, adopted an open access policy in March 2019. The policy is based on a model developed by Addis Ababa University.  

The Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Higher Education is currently working on a national open access policy, based on a model policy developed with EIFL support. The national policy is expected to be adopted in 2019 and will mandate all universities and research institutes that receive public funding to make their research open access.

EIFL and EIFL partner library consortia, the Consortium of Ethiopian Academic and Research Libraries (CEARL) in Ethiopia and the Serbian Library Consortium for Coordinated Acquisition (KoBSON), have been supporting policy development and adoption through activities that have included open access awareness-raising events, policy drafting workshops, advocacy campaigns, and sharing policy templates.