Institutional Policy for Open Science at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice
The mission of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (UPJŠ) according to its statute is the dissemination of education and the protection of knowledge, the cultivation of free thinking, independent scientific research and the all-round support of the creative spirit of human society, which it fulfils through strategic documents, in particular by “updating the long-term plan of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice for the years 2020 to 2025”. It strives to fulfil its motto “in order to be a modern and internationally established institution, UPJŠ must constantly seek ways to develop its personal and scientific potential” by making the outputs of its scientific activities accessible to the broad scientific community and the general public.
Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice is committed to promoting free and unrestricted access to research outputs through Open Access (OA) and adopts this institutional policy.
The institutional policy for Open Science at UPJŠ is based on the National Strategy for Open Science in accordance with the legislation and recommendations of the European Union concerning open science and open access to its outputs. This is primarily the Horizon Europe programme, which defines the condition of publishing the outputs generated within this programme under a public licence, as well as strengthening the openness of science and research (open data sharing). The UPJS strategy is based mainly on the awareness of the social and economic function of open access to the outputs of publicly funded scientific research and the key role of the university in the implementation of this idea. UPJS is convinced of the long-term benefits of open access both for the society that provides the resources for research and for the university itself by increasing the visibility and impact of this research.
The following activities have been or will be implemented by the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice to promote open access:
- Cooperation with Slovak and foreign universities and other institutions in the development of open access policy and strategy, participation in discussion groups;
- Establishment of an institutional repository with the aim of permanent archiving and access to all research outputs produced at UPJŠ (the “Green Road OA”);
- Support for the publication of open access publications and journals within the university publishing house, ŠafárikPress.
The following guidelines are issued by the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice in support of open access (see Rector’s Decision No. 4/2022 for more details).
- Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice recommends authors publish their work more extensively in credible and high-quality open access journals (Directory of Open Access Journals – DOAJ), thereby contributing to the dissemination of new knowledge acquired at the University (Gold OA);
- Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice requires all authors to establish a permanent and unique ORCID identifier as an aid for the unambiguous identification of authors;
- The University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice requires unique international identification of all scientific publications published by UPJŠ using DOI;
- The University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice requires a plan for the management of scientific data from publicly funded projects in accordance with FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable).
What does open access mean and what does it entail?
Open access means immediate, free and unrestricted access to scientific publications for teachers, scientists, PhD students, students, but also for the general public.
Open Access brings:
- instant access to research outputs for anyone, anytime, anywhere;
- removing legal, technological and commercial barriers to access to scientific information;
- accelerating scientific progress;
- publishing in prestigious impact journals;
- increasing the number of responses and the impact of authors’ scientific work.
Open Access initiatives
Open Access provides unrestricted free access to scholarly and scientific publications, articles and datasets through publishing in open access journals or by archiving articles in open access repositories.
The basic document for introducing the idea of Open Access is currently the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, which builds on previous initiatives: the Budapest Open Access Initiative and the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing. The Berlin Declaration defines the principles and methods of Open Access. The Open Access policy has also been supported by the Government of the Slovak Republic by approving the National Open Science Strategy and the Open Science Action Plan.
Open Access Pathways
Green OA entails archiving data or scientific articles in repositories. Public access to this information is made possible through the repository. An institutional repository has been established for this purpose at UPJŠ.
Gold OA entails the publication of scientific articles in peer-reviewed, open access journals. The publisher of such a journal makes the final version of the journal available. However, sometimes the publisher may charge the publishing author a fee for publishing the article (to cover costs).
The Repository of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice
The University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice is joining the ZENODO repository by establishing the UPJŠ institutional community as a space for collecting and archiving scientific works and data, through which it will enable the immediate and unrestricted access of the scientific community and society as a whole to the expert information and knowledge created by the UPJŠ staff.
Through the repository, UPJŠ provides immediate and unrestricted access of the scientific community and society as a whole to the expert information and knowledge created by the University, thus enabling the dissemination of research outputs to the wider public, as well as information about the University’s activities and the use of public funds.
Through the repository, UPJŠ fulfils the requirements of the EU Framework Programme for Innovation and Research Horizon 2020 for the publication of scientific works or data, as the dissemination of knowledge in open access form is one of the basic principles of this programme.
The UPJŠ repository includes works published under the UPJŠ banner (publications by employees, final and qualification theses, project outputs, digitised documents, etc.) and scientific data forming the basis of scientific publications and scientific projects under the conditions of preserving intellectual property rights. The repository also serves as a repository for the ŠafárikPress publishing house.
Contribution of the UPJŠ repository:
- immediate presentation of research outputs in a green open access manner;
- sharing scientific information with potential partners;
- a permanent and secure digital repository, which allows not only sharing research outputs but also archiving (e.g. for the needs of reporting scientific and research outputs, etc.);
- a prestigious position among the world’s universities supporting this trend.
Further information is provided in the manual for working in the institutional repository, or assistance can be provided by the responsible staff within the faculties and UPJŠ, or by the publishing house ŠafárikPress: Mgr. Andrea Dohovičová; e-mail: andrea.dohovicova@upjs.sk.
