Open Science and Scholarly Communication in Greece
Amplifying understanding and building capacity through synergies
"Unity is strength". This is the underlying principle that governs the alliance of two Greek OpenAIRE members, 'Athena' Research Center (NOAD) and 'HEAL-Link' - the consortium of academic libraries -, that work towards the wide adoption of OS policies and the alignment of the national context with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).
Both ATHENA and HEAL-Link participate in the workforce for the development of national and institutional Open Science plans, concentrating on the technical, operational and cultural aspects of the Greek R&I ecosystem.
They are responsible for the twin Research Data Management infrastructures, namely the Hellenic Data Service 'HELIX' for research institutions and 'HARDMIN' data repository for academics. The effect of OpenAIRE in Greece is important as it guides the compliance of literature and data repositories with European standards (PROVIDE), connects Data Management Plans (DMPs) with datasets and simplifies DMPs publishing, validation and monitoring (Argos), as well as ensure data anonymization respecting both GDPR and Open Science principles (Amnesia).
Supporting researchers is one of the prime interests of the alliance, driven by their European Commission mandate as National Open Access Desks in the past years. Greek researchers funded under European programmes have benefited from OpenAIRE services, resources and training on how to comply with Framework Programme requirements. Today, work of 'Athena' Research Center and HEAL-Link persists and researchers have credible options for the support of their Open Access interests, as HEAL-Link established a dedicated to OA helpdesk and developed two tools, the inventory of eligible - according to the HEAL-Link OA agreements - journals and the listing of all publishers and their options. HEAL-Link strengthens further the understanding of the OA progress in Greece as it monitors and reports on a quarterly and yearly basis. In addition, librarians benefited from the co-created policy templates that uniformly promote the FAIR principles.
Complementary to supporting material, such as the translation of the Open Research Europe guidelines and OpenAIRE factsheets and guides, several digital events were delivered, aiming to equip researchers, with accurate and timely information on intellectual property issues, OA options, Research Data Management and Data Management Plans, the EOSC, Open Research Europe, etc. Similar initiatives were addressed to library professionals, aiming at the upskilling and reskilling of the research support workforce through webinars and presentations. Extremely popular were proven the ones on RDM knowledge and skills, while another field that was covered was the exploration of the library engagement in the field of OA monographs.
Finally, in response to more urgent needs, they captured -through a series of webinars and training events- both the needs and views of the research community related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Presentations on clinical trials, the national research infrastructure for computing data against COVID-19 and a bibliographic study of the OA publications on COVID-19 from researchers of Greek Institutions highlighted the cooperative spirit and achievements of Greek researchers. Developed tools that facilitate data management and analysis (Argos, OpenRefine, Galaxy) and others that estimate the bibliographic impact of publications (BIP!Finder) showed how advanced solutions collective efforts can provide defying the time of traditional practices.
Text written by: Elli Papadopoulou, Natalia Manola, ATHENA Research and Innovation Center / OpenAIRE and Athanasia Salamoura, Scholarly Communication Unit, HEAL-Link, Giannis Tsakonas, University of Patras Library / HEAL-Link.
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