Open Access projects in Macedonia: The first steps

Irina Shumadieva, Metamorphosis Foundation

www.metamorphosis.org.mk

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Current situation

• Low level of e-content– most apparent in the area of education– evidently in languages other than Macedonian– commercial websites actively create content (limited topics)– bloggers and forum members - important contributors in local e-

content

• Most scientific institutions publish journals, but very few do it online

• Few exceptions, for example Mirko Spiroski: From 8 Macedonian Medical Journals selected on the base of specific criteria, only 1 has online ISSN and only 2 have websites proper for online publishing of scientific papers

www.metamorphosis.org.mk

…regarding online content in general

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Current situation

• Low awareness • Low skills by perspective users• Lack of interest and capacities by

relevant institutions• Discouragement due to low

feedback level• Unavailable contents from students• Plagiarism and disuse of attributionwww.metamorphosis.org.mk

…regarding open access in particular

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Previous Open Access Initiatives• Trainings• Guide• Events, Conference Sessions

(e-Society.mk 2006, e-Society.mk 2008)• Tech support for open access science

publication (philologicalstudies.org)• Open letter to the Ministry of Education

and Science and the Government of RM• Promotion of Creative Commons

licenseswww.metamorphosis.org.mk

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www.metamorphosis.org.mk

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Open Access Project• Period of implementation: by the end of the

first trimester of 2010• Main goal: to contribute to constructive use of

digital technologies as tools for critical thinking and democratization in Macedonia, through increasing the quantity and quality of e-content.

• Activities: presentations, trainings, repository software localization

• Expected results: increased quantity of e-content in the local languages in Macedonia; establishment and rising of quality standards of scientific and research works published online

www.metamorphosis.org.mk

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Goals• To raise awareness of the

importance of Open Access as a concept

• To improve visibility of academic publications

• To build capacities of academic institutions

• To increase the quality of local scholarly content available online

www.metamorphosis.org.mk

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Activities• Public presentations for

– Content creators from the academia– Decision makers (MIS, managers of sci.

institutions)

• Localized versions of Open Access Repository Software

• Trainings– for members of the academia and the education

sector – transfer of specific relevant skills

(how to launch and use own online repository)www.metamorphosis.org.mk

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Crosscutting themes

• Inclusion of members of various ethnic communities and social groups

• Sharing of knowledge about protection of intellectual property

• Lobbying and advocacy to make Macedonian legal and institutional framework conducive to Open Access

www.metamorphosis.org.mk

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OA Repository Software• Localization of OA Repository software will

be conducted into Macedonian and Albanian languages

•   dSpace– Because of its number of supporting formats– Because of its user interface– Because it’s used by more that 70 countries

• Creation of test repository aimed at gathering all Metamorphosis’ publications

www.metamorphosis.org.mk

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Thank you for your attention!

www.metamorphosis.org.mk

irina@metamorphosis.org.mk

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