Since 2019, the University of Bologna has been providing qualified personnel to promote open access to scientific publications through a dedicated service (OA Support), aimed at disseminating good practices that enable open access and reuse of scientific research results.

The Library System of the University, thanks to the inter-area connection for open access support services and assistance to funded research projects, has defined a networked support model to meet the demands of the entire academic community in the field of Open Access (OA) and Open Science (OS).

Specialised staff within the university libraries provide support by collaborating with the research communities and overseeing the OS practices of individual subject areas.

 

The University libraries are a point of reference for:

  • advice and guidance to researchers on OA practices;
  • assistance in choosing the most suitable publishing venues for OA dissemination;
  • support in the correct interpretation of publishers' policies;
  • validation of research product files in IRIS-IR (link) for OA dissemination of full text of publications and for checking related metadata;
  • support to authors on how to publish via transformative contracts;
  • first guidance for research data management;
  • support to project teams and research managers in the reporting of OA publications;
  • training activities, organisation of seminars and events.

 

AlmaDL is a reference point for OA Support Libraries for the activities of:

  • coordination;
  • second-level technical support;
  • supervision of IRIS-IR functionalities and collaboration with the competent offices;
  • monitoring of validation and assistance activities;
  • provision of data;
  • provision of annual service statistics;
  • training on OA and OS to library colleagues.

 

AlmaDL promotes good Open Access and Open Science practices, in particular through:

  • the management of platforms for publishing in Diamond OA;
  • the management of the repositories of degree and doctoral theses;
  • the management of the digital cultural heritage platform;
  • the management of the institutional repository of research data;
  • Open Access networking (DOAJ members, COAR membership);
  • OA and OS training to the academic community.

For more information, see the page with the list of libraries providing Open Access support and the contact details of the service contact persons.