User:Filippo Morsiani/Open access in Malaysia

Malaysia has initiated many projects which set the stage for open data environment for the growing country. The academic sector has led the boom of IT applications for the education growth, as is evident from the open access (OA) journals and the number of institutional repositories. Compared to other ASEAN member states, Malaysia has a high number of OA publications; as of May 2015, there are around 73 open access journals listed in DOAJ. MyLibrary is a pilot project of the proposed larger National Digital Library Initiative, functioning as a national portal to promote knowledge for the society. Malaysian government has been proactive to promote open source initiatives and programmes under the umbrella project MSC Malaysia National ICT Initiative to develop local talent and technical workforce in computer programming projects in social networks, applications, creative content development and for business avenues. Malaysia has more than 37 institutes of higher learning and as of May 2015, reports 21 repositories in OpenDOAR.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) has developed KRSTE.my (Knowledge Resources for Science and Technology Excellence)to be a one-stop access point to all information on research, development, commercialization and activities in the areas of science, technology and innovation.

The government mandate for access to public information is strong. Most ministries have an official portal for housing information and publications created by each ministry. For example, the Official Portal of Department of Islamic Development Malaysia. University libraries have implemented digital libraries to house local content such as the International Islamic Digital Library, Digital Library of Malay Manuscripts, and Siti Hasmah Digital Library.

Creative Commons Malaysia was launched in 2006 to boost knowledge and creative content sharing in Malaysia.

Enabling environment
Malaysia is pursuing technology-based development strategy, being one of the new developing industrial economies in Asia. Among the R&D sector there is an awareness to make valued research outputs openly available to enhance their availability and visibility to the global academic communities. The open access movement in Malaysia had a direct impact on the development of the institutional repository services and in collaboration between scholars (Abrizah, 2009), reports that nearly 54% of researchers (surveyed) had deposited articles into OA repositories.

Potential barriers
Although public and academic sector has seen growth in infrastructure and services, the technical know-how and personnel needs to be strengthened. Developing technologies and software for localizing information resources in Malay/Arabic language seems to be the pressing need. Government has to set the policies which would promote open content development, pilot testing and interoperability for furthering the knowledge.

The ICT infrastructure is heavily invested which results in expansion of connectivity, which is a fundamental component of OA development. Although the OA movement in Malaysia is growing, it still needs policies that would help to promote OA development. There is no national OA policy in place and no institutional or research funders' OA mandates registered (ROARMAP, SHERPA/JULIET, MELIBEA).

List of publications

 * MALAYSIAN OPEN ACCESS SUPPORT GROUP
 * Zainab, A.N. (2010). "Open Access repositories and journals for visibility: Implications for Malaysian libraries". Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, 15(3), 97–119.
 * Abrizah, A. (2009). "The cautious faculty: their awareness and attitudes towards institutional repositories". Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, 14(2), 17–37
 * Asirvatham, D., Woods, P., Takahashi, K., & Kaur, A. (2003). E-Learning Initiatives in Malaysia.

Past and future OA-related activities

 * 2011 – 5th International Malaysian Educational Technology Convention  on Open Education: Towards a Ubiquitous Learning Environment, October 16–19. Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia.
 * 2011 – Malaysia Open Source Conference 2011 was held with special workshop on Koha, July 3–5, Malaysia.
 * 2003 – E-learning Initiatives in Malaysia, October 16–17, 2003, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.