The "Open Access Kickoff Meeting" was held on May 7, 2024, in Ankara, hosted by Springer Nature Publishing House and in collaboration with TÜBİTAK ULAKBIM (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye - Turkish Academic Network and Information Center). Specialists in the field from YÖK (Council of Higher Education) and TÜBİTAK attended the meeting, along with academicians from 23 research universities. Targets, expectations and problems were laid on the table during the meeting where the Springer Nature & TÜBİTAK ULAKBIM open access agreement was analyzed in detail, on the basis of open science & open access.
In the opening presentation, Director of TÜBİTAK ULAKBIM, Mehmet Mirat Satoğlu, addressed the progress achieved by open science and open access attempts in the world and in our country, Türkiye, and the objectives for the upcoming period. Mr. Satoğlu also mentioned the contributions of TÜBİTAK ULAKBIM's services to researchers, in the light of the impacts of open access and transformation agreements.
The meeting continued with the presentations of officials from Springer Nature Publishing House. In the last session of the meeting, Zafer Kanbur from EKUAL (Electronic Resources National Academic License) group noted the history of EKUAL project and its importance for the country, details about the transformative agreement signed with Springer Nature, selection criteria for articles and open access statistics of the article approval system and research universities.
The Open Access Kickoff Meeting was successfully completed with the questions & answers session. Approximately 55 people from the academic community joined the meeting that was broadcast live on the TÜBİTAK ULAKBIM TV YouTube channel and shared their opinions on the relevant topics, thus contributing to an interactive meeting.
The "Read & Publish" Agreement signed between TÜBİTAK ULAKBIM and Springer Nature came into effect on January 1, 2024.
