Ukraine moves closer to an OA mandate
Iryna Kuchma sends OA news from the Ukraine. Excerpt:
[A group of public and private organizations] created a working group on developing Open Access projects in Ukraine and implementing resolution of Ukrainian Parliament on Open Access.
The working group was created during a seminar Open Access: Information, Scientific Communication and Culture that took place on September 28 2006 at International Renaissance Foundation….
The seminar Open Access: Information, Scientific Communication and Culture was based on the presentation by Urs Schoepflin, Library Director, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, on International Open Access Initiatives, Open Access to Culture and Science, Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, and Open Access projects of Max Planck Society in Germany. Iryna Kuchma, International Renaissance Foundation, complemented with a presentation of latest Ukrainian and international Open Access developments, policies and practices.
At the end of 2005 Ukrainian Parliament (Verhovna Rada) passed resolution On Recommendations of Parliamentary hearing on Developing information society in Ukraine…where open access was called one of the priorities in developing information society in Ukraine….[I]t is recommended for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to create favourable conditions for developing open access repositories in archives, libraries, museums and other cultural institutions….[I]t is recommended for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to stir to activities on creating accessible national electronic information resources especially with scientific-technical and economical information; to develop model regulation on repository of electronic documents; and for the Ministry of education and science of Ukraine to speed up development of state program on ICT in education and science including the close on development of open access resources in science, technology and education with open access condition to state funded researches….
The organizations launching the new open access working group include the Parliamentary Committee on Science and Education, the State Fund for Fundamental Researches, the Scientific and Publishing Council of National Academy of Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Science and Education of Ukraine, the National Library of Ukraine after V.Vernadsky, the State Department of Intellectual Property, the Kyiv public administration, the Association “Informatio-Consortium”, the Institute of social development, and the International Renaissance Foundation (Soros Foundation–Ukraine).
Comment. The Parliamentary resolution of December 2005 recommends an OA mandate for publicly-funded research. It’s very good news that the working group now pushing for its implementation represents so many public agencies.
