The National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSLC) and OpenAIRE are launching a groundbreaking collaboration to boost research visibility and infrastructure interoperability between Europe and China. By sharing expertise in metadata standards and best practices, this partnership aims to create FAIRable research infrastructure for academic organizations, fostering effective and interoperable research practices.
A primary objective of this collaboration is to improve interoperability and the overall quality of the data management systems for both Pubscholar and the OpenAIRE Graph, recognizing their interconnected nature. This enhancement will be facilitated through a series of technical workshops and training sessions, the creation of robust data exchange protocols, and meticulous organization curation. Additionally, joint teams will be established to integrate essential features and functionalities, ensuring a seamless connection between the two systems and fostering a more effective research ecosystem.
The partnership also aims to co-develop the OpenAIRE Guidelines, with CAS playing an active role in establishing these as a global standard. By participating in the OpenAIRE Working Group and pilot implementations in Chinese repositories, valuable feedback will be collected to refine the guidelines, ultimately enhancing open access practices for researchers and institutions globally.
Furthermore, the collaboration will facilitate in-depth discussions on creating a global network for sharing open science infrastructure, focusing on improving the accessibility and interoperability of research outputs to ensure they are open, trustworthy, and AI-ready. Engaging in expert panels and forums with leaders in open science will enable both parties to share innovative strategies and best practices, thereby bolstering the reliability and global impact of scientific knowledge. Finally, dedicated workshops aimed at developing long-term sustainability strategies will further reinforce open scholarly communication.
By implementing this three-year plan, the partnership between NSLC and OpenAIRE will significantly elevate the visibility and interoperability of research outputs, fostering richer exchanges and deeper cooperation between academic communities in China and Europe. This initiative will not only promote open science practices but also provide researchers and institutions with a streamlined platform for resource sharing, contributing to the sustainable development of the global scholarly ecosystem. Together, OpenAIRE and NSLC are embarking on a transformative journey toward a more interconnected and impactful research landscape, ultimately benefiting institutions worldwide.
“The National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSLC) is firmly dedicated to promoting Open Access (OA) and Open Science (OS) as core elements of its mission. In pursuit of this vision, in 2023, we have partnered with the Computer Network Information Center (CNIC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Science Press (CAS) to launch PubScholar, a public academic information service platform that has received widespread acclaim from users and researchers across China. We are proud to have established a partnership with OpenAIRE, further reinforcing our shared commitment to improving the mechanisms for open science information sharing. The aspiration for open information exchange resonates deeply within the global scientific community, and we envision collaborative efforts among nations to foster a vibrant academic information ecosystem that not only champions but actively sustains open science initiatives.” - Xiwen Liu, National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Director
“Our mission has always been to transcend organizational and geographical boundaries, building a truly global network for open scholarly communication. We are very honored to work with NSLC, which has achieved remarkable advancements in its infrastructure in recent years. We are excited about this new partnership and eager to explore new opportunities to jointly contribute to the advancement of Open Science on a global scale, demonstrating how science bridges gaps, fosters international cooperation, and drives information sharing through open infrastructures. By leveraging the common ground between PubScholar and the OpenAIRE Graph, we are confident that our collaboration will deepen and set a powerful example for other regions around the world.”- Natalia Manola, OpenAIRE CEO
About National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSLC)：NSLC is affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), founded in 1950. The core mission of NSLC is to provide comprehensive literature and information services, high-level scientific exchanges and communication services, as well as information services covering the entire Science and Technology (S&T) innovation value chain, which foster S&T independent innovation in natural sciences, cutting-edge interdisciplinary sciences and other high-tech fields. It offers public information services for research institutes based on National Science and Technology Library (NSTL) through joint construction and resource sharing. NSLC is the member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI).
About PubScholar: Public Academic Scholar Platform (PubScholar) is a platform providing services for the global including academic resource retrieval, content acquisition, exchange and sharing. It aims to eliminate barriers to knowledge acquisition, making it easier for scientists and the whole society to obtain high quality academic resources, in order to support open innovation and resolve global challenges. In the belief that scientific knowledge should be as open as possible, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) deployed the construction of PubScholar by integrating the CAS Preprint Platform (ChinaXiv), Science Data Bank (ScienceDB), Chinese Academy of Sciences Institutional Repositories Grid (CAS IR), personal academic homepage, open academic community, CSCD academic evaluation and other open academic service modules, PubScholar has built up an open scholarly communication ecology for the global scientists to share, discover scientific knowledge and stay connected to the world of science, including preprint exchange, open peer review, scientific data sharing, green digital repository, and professional academic network. Besides, PubScholar provides a leading intelligent knowledge service based on a science and technology literature AI model, which assists improving research efficiency.
About OpenAIRE: OpenAIRE is a Non-Profit Partnership, established in 2018 as a legal entity, OpenAIRE AMKE, to ensure a permanent open scholarly communication infrastructure and support research in Europe and beyond. OpenAIRE is making Open Science happen. Collectively and in practical ways. Its fields of expertise and activities include services, policies and training. Operating since 2009, OpenAIRE is an integral part and a leading force behind the European Open Science Cloud developments. https://www.openaire.eu/
About the OpenAIRE Graph: The OpenAIRE Graph is a free and open resource that brings together and interlinks hundreds of millions of metadata records from over 100k trusted data sources. The project broke ground in 2012, being one of the first research knowledge graphs, and has now grown into one of the world's largest and most interconnected. It is also the authoritative source for the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The OpenAIRE Graph is an e-infrastructure where researchers, communities, institutions, companies, and citizens can freely share research products and related information. It is available and obtained as a collection of metadata and links related to research outputs generated during experiments or research projects across the world, which are then further enriched with even more metadata and links. The Graph is available to all either directly via its dataset and API, or by using services such as OpenAIRE EXPLORE, which serve as the user-interface for the Graph, enabling users to efficiently search and navigate through its interconnected research ecosystem. Using the OpenAIRE Guidelines and the metadata validation mechanism in PROVIDE, the OpenAIRE Graph aggregates millions of metadata records collected from trusted data sources that facilitate Open Science (such as repositories registered in OpenDOAR, re3data.org, and FAIRSharing.org, journals registered in DOAJ, pre-print servers, and more), and enriched further with records from Crossref, Unpaywall, ORCID, Microsoft Academic, PubMed, DataCite, OpenCitations, and UsageCounts. Among the many indicators embedded in the Graph, it maintains data related to monitoring Open Access and Open Science policies. It is currently used for this in services such as the Open Science Observatory, the EOSC Observatory, and the Irish National OA Monitor. Open to all, the OpenAIRE Graph is a public good, which operates under community governance. This effort is spearheaded by OpenAIRE AMKE. https://graph.openaire.eu/
