Open Access in Practice: Dissemination, Visibility, Usage & Impact of Scholarly Research

The University of Malta (UM) Library in conjunction with OpenAIRE organised a one-day workshop entitled Open Access in Practice: Dissemination, Visibility, Usage & Impact of Scholarly Research.
The event was held on Friday 12^th January, 2018 at the UM’s Conferences and Events Unit, based at the Valletta Campus.  The aim of the event was to raise awareness about the concept of Open Access and to provide a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas between key stakeholders for the adoption of Open Science practices in Malta.  The event was mainly targeted towards academics, research administrators, policy makers, project managers, funders and librarians but other attendees such as students and retired educators also participated in this workshop.



The event was opened by Prof. Alfred Vella, Rector for the University of Malta and Mr Kevin Ellul, Director Library Services who highlighted the benefits of Open Access and the importance of engaging the academic community in this process.  Following the introductory remarks, the first part of the event was dedicated on Open Access Policy Developments, Open Access Infrastructures, and Open Science and Innovation.  Interested examples and demonstrations such as OpenAIRE infrastructure and the operability of the UM’s Institutional Repository, OAR@UM were highlighted.  The first session was concluded with a breakout session on the role of the recently implemented Open Access Policy for the University of Malta and the UM’s Institutional Repository, OAR@UM in promoting scholarly communication.

The second part of the event focused on the practical views of Open Access with insights and discussion on Open Access from a researcher’s and editor’s perspective.  This was followed by a presentation on the legal aspects of Open Access which examined current policies in this area as well as copyright, patents, licensing framework, legal reform and impact.  Moving from practical views to open research data, the presentation on research data management and data sharing underlined the role of the EC’s open research data policy and the planning of FAIR data management.

The workshop was highly stimulating and all stakeholders were keen to discuss and discover about innovative trends of scholarly communication and Open Science.  This event served as a tool to strengthen and enhance the expertise of all stakeholders, highlight the importance of developing and implementing open science policies, as well as, support managers, administrators and funding bodies with the harmonisation and compliance of open science requirements.

The presentations together with the programme, photo album & breakout session questions are available via the following link.