Open access in Vietnam
Open Access in Vietnam; Vietnam has shown efforts to facilitate open access resources with initiatives in science and technology, education, and research and development sectors. Vietnam Book Initiative is a project started by the Vietnam Education Foundation Fellows Association (VEFFA) to build a network of open-access science and engineering libraries in Vietnam in collaboration with local universities. The higher education system in Vietnam consists of 322 universities and colleges, of which 47 were private in the 2006-2007 academic year. Vietnam Journal Online is an initiative that allows readers to access scientific knowledge published in Vietnam, with 57 open-access journals, and is maintained by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Vietnam. The National Centre for Scientific and Technological Information, Vietnam (NACESTI) has been working towards a national network of science and technology information service organizations. NACESTI has the mandate to carry out science and technology information activities, disseminate and promote science and technology and research and development projects. On January 20, 2010, the Vietnam Foundation and the Online Management Training Company signed an agreement for cooperation to promote the use and development of Open Educational Resources (OER) at the enterprise and national levels. The National Agency for Science and Technology Information (NASATI) has VINAREN (Vietnam Research & Education Network) connecting to regional and international research and education networks in order to improve effectiveness and promote international cooperation and integration in the field of research and education.
As of May 2015, there is one OA repository from Vietnam indexed in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) - National University of Ho Chi Minh.
Enabling Environment
Since internet penetration and technology diffusion are slow in Vietnam, the environment is not yet conducive to developing and exchanging open data in the public domain. There is currently no national open access policy in place, and no funders' mandates for open access publishing. Government policies and programs need to promote open content to support open scholarship.
The Vietnamese government's policies in recent years claim to support the decentralization of government accountability and the participation of the poor in policymaking; the government supports the decentralization of knowledge. Over the past decade, individual institutions have promoted access to official and authenticated legal information to the public. This has brought a new approach of free and open access to legal information via the internet. To promote and disseminate science and technology and research and development projects, Vietnamese ministries and associations have developed open access projects and encouraged open access activities. For instance, the Vietnam Education Foundation Fellow Association has implemented the Vietnam Book Initiative to build a network of open access science and engineering libraries in Vietnam in collaboration with local universities.
Potential Barriers
Internet connectivity, especially in rural areas, is poor. Developing local content in the Vietnamese language is a major concern to promote open content. Use of different software for databases and lack of adherence to a general standard leads to problems of interoperability. Lack of English language proficiency hinders content creation or accessing and utilizing openly available content. The government has passed laws to try to control what information can be published and read on the internet, and certain sites critical of the Vietnamese government are censored. Although open access journal sites would not be restricted, this could change at any time due to inconsistent law enforcement.
Areas of focus
- IT infrastructure; increased internet broadband width and speed
- Skilled ICT professionals who can maintain open access repositories and online open access journals
- Open access repositories where the interface is the local language
- Training/ workshops for researchers to encourage self-archiving practices
- National and institutional open access policies and funders' mandates.
February/March 2013 - The Springer Author Academy organized an author workshop in Vietnam National University and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology's Institute of Tropical Biology. These workshops brought Springer's writing and publishing expertise to a large Vietnamese audience and encouraged academicians to share high-quality research being produced locally.
List of Publications
Hung, T.B. (2002). Digital Library Development in Vietnam.
Sources
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