23 February 2010

The National Research Environment

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Science oversees education and research in Bulgaria. The legal framework for founding of higher education institutions is set by the Law of Higher Education. According to Article 9 of this Law, the Parliament (Narodno sabranie) plays the key role in decision making about matters, that concern the network of higher education institutions in the country.    

Major research funders

The major research funder in Bulgaria is the National Science Fund.  Promotion of Open Access is more of an individual effort, than the result of institutional support or policy.

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), the coordinator of research in Bulgaria, intends to establish a network of scientific Open Access centres. Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IMI-BAS) will be the coordinator of the Bulgarian network and will provide support for academic institutions and researchers. IMI-BAS will launch a national project to develop the research infrastructure and digital repositories for researchers, educators, public bodies and companies who need contemporary scientific and education information and resources. This will foster integration between academia, the public sector and industry, as well as strengthen the institutional links between all major research and education organizations (Universities, Institutes of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, etc).

Open Access and Repositories

Bulgarian research community is informed about the benefits of open access and uses open access research publications.

There is a certain level of awareness among libraries, especially university libraries, though still very few institutions are involved in managing the repositories.

Open Access repositories

As of March 2010 there are three Open Access Bulgarian repositories registered in OpenDOAR:

1) New Bulgarian University

NBU Scholar Electronic Repository - http://eprints.nbu.bg is the first digital repository of scientific literature in Bulgaria. Faculty members can deposit their papers. Currently there are 534 faculty who are registered to deposit their papers and 171 publications are fully accessible online. The New Bulgarian University encourages, but does not require faculty members to deposit their research outputs into the repository.  

2) Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Repository at IMI-BAS - http://sci-gems.math.bas.bg is based on DSpace software with an active and configured OAI-PMH interface for metadata harvesting. Currently (January 2010) there are 790 publications from 4 journals:

• Serdica Journal of Computing
• Serdica Mathematical Journal
• International Journal Information Theories and Applications – ITHEA
• International Journal Information Technologies and Knowledge – ITK

3) University of Sofia "St. Kliment Ohridski"

Research at Sofia University - http://research.uni-sofia.bg There are initiatives at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" to support the development of Open Access. There is a digital repository for the main research outputs of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics. Other faculties are expected to join soon.

There is also a pilot repository project at the University of Rousse - http://dspace.ru.acad.bg/.

Open Access publishing

There are 25 Bulgarian Open Access journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=findJournals&hybrid=&query=Bulgaria

Open Access Organisations and Groups

Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IMI-BAS): Peter L. Stanchev, Ph.D., D.Sc., Professor and chair of Computer Systems Department, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Bulgarian Information Consortium (BIC)/Български информационен консорциум with 38 members - 26 universities, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1 agency, 3 National and Centrl libraries, 4 Public libraries, and 3 NGO - Radostina Todorova, New Bulgarian University Library, eIFL-OA country coordinator, rtodorova[@]nbu.bg.

Contributors Contact Details

Peter L. Stanchev, Ph.D., D.Sc.

Professor and chair of Computer Systems Department

Institute of Mathematics and Informatics

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

8 G. Bonchev Str., 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria

e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

WWW URL: http://paws.kettering.edu/~pstanche/

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