User:Filippo Morsiani/Open access in Israel

Open Access is a new initiative in Israel. There are 2 OA repositories in the country. The first Israeli Scholar Works, was established in 2006 with the aim of collecting the scholarly output of Israeli studies and the second, Weizmann Institute of Science.

As of June 2015 there are 17 OA journals published in Israel which are indexed by DOAJ. Currently, no OA policies are registered in ROARMAP.

Enabling Environment
There are 8 universities in Israel, around 30 colleges and 27 research institutions, some of which operate within universities, others are independent. The educational and research infrastructure in Israel is strong but Open Access initiatives have not been developed.

Potential Barriers
Lack of national mandates; lack of Open Access strategy. Israel Open Access Scholar has an OA blog where prominent academics make the case against OA as “equating socialised science” and further arguments.

Details of Key Organizations
MALMAD

Overview: MALMAD is the Inter-University Center for Digital Information Services was set up in 1998 by the Committee of University Heads. It aims to serve as a consortium for the acquisition, licensing and operation of information services to universities and colleges in Israel. MALMAD provides modern digital information services more efficiently and at a lower cost per-user by inter-university cooperation and pooling of resources.

Communication address: MALMAD, IUCC, 16 Klausner st., P.O.B. 39513. Tel Aviv, Israel 61394 ; e-mail: [null malmad(at)mail.iucc.ac.il]

Thematic Open Access projects/Initiatives
There are a number of specialised research institutes in Israel e.g. Asher Space Research Institute; Agricultural Research Organisation but they have not yet developed institutional repositories.,science, technology and engineering in all space related fields.
 * Israel Scholar Works aims to collect and disseminate all scholarly material on Israeli studies.
 * Weizmann Institute of Science is an institutional repository with reports on Computer Science and Applied Mathematics.

List of Publications
Suber, P (2006) An OA repository for Israel Open Access News .