Since 2010, the number of digital archives in universities and scientific institutions of Ukraine has grown more than 6 times – the results of a survey on repositories and open science

The results of the first wave of a survey of Ukrainian HEIs and scientific institutions on institutional repositories, open science and willingness to cooperate with the National Repository of Academic Texts (NRAT) were published. The study was initiated by the Directorate of Science and Innovation of the Ministry of Education and Science with the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific and Technical Expertise and Information.

Its goal is to determine the state of local repositories of institutions, to form a map of existing scientific digital archives for the further implementation of the open access policy and the development of the NRAT.

The first wave of the survey took place from 1 to 31 July. It was attended by 202 representatives of the WBO and scientific institutions dealing with issues of scientific activity, academic virtue, the activities of scientific libraries, the creation and maintenance of institutional repositories. In particular, 133 universities and 69 research institutions joined the survey, of which 65 belong to the management of the National and Sectoral Academies of Sciences.

Investigated such questions:

• the work on HPAT and the existence of its own repository;
• the existing infrastructure of openness;
• content;
• organizational issues of the institutional repository;
• legal and regulatory aspects;
• general assessments regarding the prospects for the development of open science.

More than 90% of the respondents are generally well informed about the government decisions and orders of the Ministry of Education and Science regarding the creation of the NRAT. Somewhat below is the acquaintance with the best domestic and foreign practices of electronic online archives – about 60%. An affirmative answer about having their own institutional repository was provided by 56%.

It is also worth noting that the number of digital archives in the Western Military District and scientific institutions of Ukraine is constantly growing. In 2011-2015, they were created 2.5 times more than in the previous 5 years, over the past 4 years their number increased by another 17% compared to the previous period.

Detailed survey results can be viewed here.

Research is ongoing. Those HEIs and scientific institutions, which for various reasons could not take part in the survey in July, can join until September 18 of this year. For detailed information on filling out the questionnaire, please contact NRAT@ukrintei.ua.

A pilot version of the National Repository of Academic Texts can be found here. This year, it is planned to start connecting local repositories to the NRAT to ensure the exchange of available academic texts and use the accumulated database for anti-plagiarism checks. Now we are making changes to the Regulations of the NRAT, which will expand the possibilities of users in working with NRAT, as well as simplify access to external anti-plagiarism services.

Source: МESU