Ukrainian Journal Publishing: a Lost Battle on the Way to Open Access?

This poster presents a preliminary analysis of the key factors that reflect the current state of Ukrainian scholarly journal publishing with a focus on the challenges and obstacles they face on the way to transition to Open Access (OA), as well as an analysis of existing initiatives and strategies in the field of OA journal publishing in the country.

The Ukrainian research community has been trying to move towards OA for years. Despite the efforts of various stakeholders, including universities, libraries, research institutions and government agencies, preliminary findings suggest that the country is not doing well in this area (Novikov, 2020). For example, according to various national sources, from 1500 to almost 3000 journals are published in Ukraine, but only about 27% are represented in the DOAJ (Laakso & Multas, 2023). Does this number represent the reality? What publishing model, as opposed to OA, do most Ukrainian journals prefer and why?

This poster highlights the main reasons for the situation with the perception and implementation of OA journal publishing in Ukraine, such as low awareness of researchers and publishers of its organisational features, including legal and financial, and the lack of justification and chaotic government initiatives for its implementation. Thus, among the latest initiatives of the Ukrainian government was the introduction of the National Open Science Action Plan on 8 October 2022 (Nazarovets, 2022). This plan, among other things, contains unexpected goals to register 40 Ukrainian journals with the DOAJ in 2024. Given the overall picture of journal publishing in Ukraine, this goal raises many questions.

By identifying key factors that reflect the current state of OA journal publishing in Ukraine, the poster aims to contribute to the discussion on the need for more clear, reasonable, and controlled plans for the development of scholarly communication in Ukraine and beyond, with the introduction of new emerging publishing models and based on the experience of successful global initiatives, taking into account regional specifics.

Laakso, M. & Multas, A.-M. (2023). European scholarly journals from small- and mid-size publishers: mapping journals and public funding mechanisms, Science and Public Policy, scac081. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scac081

Nazarovets, S. (2022). Ukraine approves National Plan for Open Science. Nature. 611, 236. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03583-x

Novikov, A. (2020). The Splendors and Miseries of Open Access Scientific Publishing in Ukraine. Publications, 8(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications8010016