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Open access in Lithuania; Lithuania has 47 State higher education establishments; 20 non-State higher education establishments, 19 research institutes and university research institutes and others.
Since 2006 Electronic Academic Library of Lithuania (eLABa) has operated as the national OA repository of the Ministry of Education and Science and all academic institutions in Lithuania. The fundamentals of the eLABa were laid in the course of the project Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT) and the initial online database of thesis and dissertations (ETD) in 2003. The eLABa stores more than 29 thousands documents of all types from 6 collections.
Lithuania has an EIFL representation through Lithuanian Research Library Consortium (LMBA).
As of June 2015, there are 11 OA digital repositories registered in OpenDOAR. 34 OA journals are listed in DOAJ. There are currently 6 institutional OA policies registered in ROARMAP.
On 8 July 2015, the Research Council of Lithuania held a seminar "Policies on Open Access to Scientific Results: Present Day Situation and Future Goals". This marks the beginning of the series of discussions and open consultations in the country with the aim to develop the Policy on Open Access to scientific publications and data in Lithuania by end of 2015.
Enabling Environment
editThe Ministry of Education established eLABa, a national depository system to provide the environment to deposit and access electronic documents using Fedora infrastructure software. Its use is voluntary and mostly by universities as a research depository. In 2009 legislation required the results of scientific activity to be made publicly available.
The Lithuanian Research Library Consortium (LMBA) represents academic libraries and is responsible for most of the OA activity in the country through its membership of EIFL.
Potential Barriers
editThere is currently no national OA mandate in Lithuania; but the recently held seminar on 8 July 2015, which addressed the country's need for developing an OA Policy is hoped to change this situatuion by the end of 2015. Furthermore, most institutions do not have repositories; there is ambivalence to OA in the scientific community (Kuprienė, J and Petrauskienė, Z, 2009).
Major Projects/Initiatives:
Open Access to Science and Research (MITAP)
editProject coordinator: Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA); Project duration: 2012-12-28 – 2015-08-28; Project funded by: European Social Fund
The aim of the project – facilitating technology transfer in open access Centres with the aim of strengthening the international competitiveness of Lithuanian researchers in the European research area.
The main goals of the project:
Granting public access to scientific knowledge and R&D output; Publicity of activities of open access centres; Organisation and execution of technology transfer activities in open access centres. Since 2006 the RCL in cooperation with Lithuanian educational institutions and libraries manages thedatabase
Lituanistika, which aims to accumulate and disseminate certified, high-quality information about research in Lithuanian studies in Lithuania and in the world. The Lituanistika database is created according to the projects supported by the European Structural Funds. This database is planned to be used and developed in the period 2015–2020.
Research Council of Lithuania (RCL) agreed to take on the mission to be a coordinating body concerning OA issues at the end of 2013.Concrete policies and implementation plans areexpected to be developed in the coming few years. Animportant input for this issue is expected from the FP7 project PASTEUR4OA (Open Access PolicyAlignment Strategies for European Union Research)that aims to support the European Commission’s Recommendation to Member States of July 2012 that they develop and implement policies to ensure OA toall outputs from publicly-funded research. This PASTEUR4OA project started in February 2014, andthe RCL is a project Partner.
Kaunas College Repository Lithuanian Electronic Academic Library (eLABa) Lithuanian Electronic Thesis and Dissertations (ETD) Scientific publications of ASU staff (Aleksandras Stulginskis University) Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Institutional Repository Vytautas Magnus University repository Research data Reposities:
Lithuanian Data Archive for HSS LIDA
National Open Access Research Data Archive MIDAS (Project funded by EU Structural Funds, January 2012– June 2014)
National and Institutional Level Policies/Mandates:
The new law on Science and Studies of the Republic of Lithuania (2009) requires the results of scientific activity to be made publicly available.
Details of Key Organizations
editLithuanian Research Library Consortium (LMBA) Overview: Representative group of 52 academic library members with whom OA initiatives are developed through EIFL.
Past and Future OA Related Activities
edit15 April 2015: "Promoting open science among young researchers"; Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) implements FOSTER co-funded project. Four training sessions are planned to increase young researchers’ competence on open science and to develop practical skills on open access publishing and research data management. The series of workshops and a round-table discussion with different stakeholders (policy makers, funding agencies institutional managers, research administrators, etc.) will be organized. Programme:
19 March 2015: The topics discussed were: “EU and national open access and open science policies and practices, in relation to publicly funded research in Horizon 2020 and national grant schemes” and “Linking Open Access research publications with Open research data”.
April 15, 2015
Discussed institutional open access repositories and research data archives: practical guidelines on how to comply with Horizon 2020 open access requirements, how to submit publications to the national and international repositories of publications and data. An overview of the open access infrastructure in Lithuania (eLABa, Lituanistika, MIDAS, LiDA, etc.). September 25, 2015
Will discuss open science, open access publishing and open peer-review. Intellectual property rights, copyright and licensing issues, Creative Commons Licences October 21, 2015
Will discuss research data management plan, issues of research data management planning. Traditional and alternative research evaluation, almetrics. An important role in the stakeholder dialogues is played by the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO which invited stakeholders to focus on this area of expertise. The first meeting of various institutions linked to the OA to scientific information representatives was held in January 2013. The participants expressed a need to form a working group constituted from various authorities and stakeholders that could summarize the situation in Lithuania and provide suggestions for further development. This kind of group was formed by the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO in February 2013. The group was composed of the representatives of LMBA, the RCL, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, the Vilnius University library, the Lithuanian Society of Young Researchers, the Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Centre (MOSTA), and the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA)
International Open Access Week celebrations
edit26 October 2012: Open discussion "The OA development in Lithuania"- The open discussion among young researchers,representatives of research funding institutions, science authorities, publishers, librarians and other open access stakeholders was organized by Kaunas University of Technology in partnership with The Lithuanian Society of Young Researchers, The Association of Lithuanian Serials, The Lithuanian Research Libraries Consortium. This event completed the series of workshops organized with the support of EIFL. OA week 2011 in Lithuania OA week 2010 in Lithuania LMBA have been actively promoting OA since 2005. Various events http://www.lmba.lt/en/open-access/events (seminars, round-table discussions and presentations delivered by the OA supporters at the national and international levels) play an important role in advocating for the OA ideas in Lithuania.
International Conference "Dissemination Possibilities for Lithuanian Research Journals in the World" was held in 2010. Following the OA Weeks 2010, 20 journals adopted the Open Journal System to assist in the OA publishing process. Now OJS is used by 23 journals. 33 journals published in Lithuania were registered in the DOAJ catalogue in 2012.
LMBA implemented project ‘Promoting Open Access in Lithuania’ supported by EIFL open access grant in 2011. As a result of this activity a printed and video promotional material (http://www.lmba.lt/en/open-access/video) were created. The survey (http://www.lmba.lt/sites/default/files/OA_tyrimo%20ataskaita.pdf) to evaluate the OA policies and practices at the research and study institutions was carried out. During OA Week 2011 the international conference Opening the Scientific Knowledge‘ was organized at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius. In a frame of the project a new partnership with Lithuanian Society of Young Researchers was formed and need of training about open access was identified, as well as lack of knowledge about open access, EC and other funding institutions requirements.
A new OA project „Open Access from the Perspective of Young Researchers“ supported by EILF grant started in 2012. A series of workshops to familiarize young researchers with OA idea and initiatives, encourage them to be OA advocates are organised. The roundtable discussion among young researchers and other OA stakeholders will be organized during OA Week 2012.
Lithuania participates in the following OA projects
edit- OpenAIRE
- OpenAIREplus
- DART-Europe
- DRIVER
- PEER
- NDLTD
List of Publications
editGintare Tautkevičienė, Rūta Petrauskaitė, Brigita Serafinavičiūtė; "Open Access in Lithuania" Sciecom Info 2 (2014)
National Open Access and Preservation Policies in Europe: Analysis of a Questionnaire to the European Research Area Committee; EUROPEAN UNION, 2011.
Banionytė, Emilija; Vaškevičienė, Aušra; Tautkevičienė, Gintarė. Interviews with Lithuanian Polticians and Famous Researchers about Open Access. From Scienscominfo: Nordic-Baltic Forum for Scientific Communication, 2011, 7, 3.
Dagienė, E. (2012). Promoting open access via implementing Open Journal System: case study.
Dagienė, E (2011) Changes in Lithuanian research journal publishing in 2009–2010 Sciecom Info Vol.7, 1. (CC).
Kuprienė, J and Petrauskienė, Z (2009) Open access to scientific publications: the situation in Lithuania Sciecom Info Vol 5, 2. (CC).
Kretavičienė, M. (2008) The Meeting on Open Access in the European Union and Lithuania, 7 May 2008. Scienscominfo: Nordic-Baltic Forum for Scientific Communication, 2008, vol. 4 no. 2 (CC). ISSN 1652-3202.
Kretaviėienė, M (2009) Experiences of Lithuanian DOAJ-journal. Scienscominfo: Nordic-Baltic Forum for Scientific Communication, 2009, vol. 5, no. 1 (CC). ISSN 1652-3202.
Tautkevicienė, G, Kuchma, I and Cesevičiute, I (2009) The role of open access in the scholarly communication process. In Changes in Social and Business Environment: proceedings of the 3rd international conference, November 4–5, 2009, Kaunas University of Technology Panevėžys Institute, Lithuania: selected papers. Kaunas: Technologija, 2009, p. 438—444. ISBN 1822-7090.
Tautkevičienė, G, et al. (2010) Integration of the Lithuanian academic e-Library (eLABa) into the international open access infrastructure. Scienscominfo: Nordic-Baltic Forum for Scientific Communication, 2010, Vol. 6, No. 3. ISSN 1652-3202.
Tautkevičienė, G, et. al. (2011). Demand for and practice of developing information competencies among researchers. In Libraries for An Open Environment: strategies, technologies and partnerships: IATUL 32nd Conference, May 29 – June 2, 2011, Warsaw.
Tautkevičienė, G. (2012). Promoting Open Access in Lithuania: case study. http://www.eifl.net/system/files/201202/oa-case-studylithuania-oaadvocacy-final.pdf
Sources
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This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0 (license statement/permission). Text taken from Global Open Access Portal, UNESCO. UNESCO.