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Written on .

Responsible institutions:
• Ministry of Education and Science
• National Council for Science and Innovations
• National Centre for Information and Documentation

Strategic framework:
• National Open Science Plan, since January 2020 – the main strategic document with regards to open science that outlines the open science vision of Bulgaria, gives an overview of reached milestones and takes them into account and outlines detailed objectives, commitments and action points with regard to the development and sustainability of the open science initiative in Bulgaria for the next five years.
https://naukamon.eu/en/national-plan-for-the-development-of-the-open-science-initiative-in-bulgaria/
• National strategy for the development of the scientific research 2017 – 2030 + Implementation plan – “open access to scientific information” is a strategic action point and also there is an objective “active participation in the European research area and strengthening international cooperation and partnerships in the field of science, including the EOSC and similar initiatives.”
• National concept for open access to scientific information - outlines the essence and framework of open science.
• Guidelines on sharing scientific publications with open access and using the national repository and the portal for open science are published in BPOS and are distributed within the research community.
• Instructions for publishing in the national repository are available on BPOS.

Government documents regarding open access and open science:

National Strategy for Development of the Scientific Research
Recommendation 1. The Ministry of Education and Science shall establish a policy of open access. The national policy of open access should be formulated on the basis of the green model, within which quality is ensured by scientific publications. This should embrace all research institutions which perform and/or disseminate fully or partially state-funded research. Access to the results of state-funded research should be provided to the greatest possible extent.

Recommendation 2. Scientific institutions and foundations shall also establish policies on open access. All research institutions and public foundations should implement open access policies consistent with the national policy of open access.

Recommendation 3. Universities and other research institutions shall implement and promote the open access policy. All universities and research institutions should encourage open access policies which are consistent with the national policy of open access.

Recommendation 4. Exploring the opportunities for coordination between the bibliometric indicator and the open access policies.An investigation should be carried out on to find out whether it is possible to achieve coordination between the bibliometric indicator and open access.

Recommendation 5. A single joint national database for research has to be established. All state-funded research should be entered in the databases of all research institutions and/or be connected in a joint portal for research.

Recommendation 6. Exploring the need for a repository for the scientific publications of small research institutions.An investigation of small research institutions’ need of a joint repository should be carried out.

Recommendation 7. Scientific publishers, research institutions and publishers shall prepare a joint document on the transition to open access.Bulgarian scientific institutions should be encouraged to make suggestions on how to perform the transition of Bulgarian scientific journals to open access.

Recommendation 8. Informing the scientific community. An information campaign on open access directed to the scientific community should be carried out, in the form of a conference and information materials.

Recommendation 9. Coordinating the open access initiative with similar international initiatives.Representatives of research councils in international research fora can provide coordination with international policies for open access.

Recommendation 10. Licenses shall receive consideration. The negotiation of the remuneration of authors within gold open access should be given consideration. Free use of green access and transparency in payment of services should be ensured.

Recommendation 11. Participation in national fora for cooperation in the field of interoperability and repositories.Bulgaria's participation in central fora for cooperation such as Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) should be guaranteed.

Recommendation 12. Creating a service for long-term storage of scientific publications. A service for long-term storage should be created, which will ensure that the digital publications can be read and used for a long time.

Recommendation 13. Planning open access and long-term conservation of the original data. The archiving of data should be planned, so as to ensure present and future access to them.

national policy