Major boost for M'sian research
HIGHER education has gone beyond merely imparting knowledge in lecture halls.
For years, academics have been expected not only to teach but also to conduct research – driving innovation and scientific discovery while delivering real-world benefits in their respective fields.
In a bid to boost the global visibility and accessibility of research from Malaysian researchers, the Higher Education Electronic Resources Consortium (KONSEPt) – the Malaysian consortium for higher education and research institutions – recently signed a landmark national open access agreement with Springer Nature.
This marked the first national transformative agreement (TA) in Malaysia and among South-East Asian countries.
Following the agreement, researchers from all 20 of Malaysia's public universities will be able to publish their work as open access in more than 2,000 hybrid journals across the Springer Nature portfolio.
Simultaneously, students and faculty will gain full reading access to more than 2,300 journal titles.
The move demonstrates the growing momentum across economies of all sizes for open access publishing, and the increasing global shift towards open science and research – where researchers are better supported in publishing openly, expanding the visibility and impact of their work, and fostering greater international collaboration.
Higher Education director general Prof Datuk Dr Azlinda Azman said the initiative supports the ministry's digitalisation and internationalisation agenda, as well as the National Knowledge Infrastructure framework.
'This is a pivotal step in Malaysia's commitment to open science and research transparency, further enhancing international visibility, impact and collaboration,' she said in a press release dated June 4.
KONSEPt chairperson Mazmin Mat Akhir said the TA marks a new chapter for academic libraries, not only in providing access to research but also in facilitating open access publishing.
'It empowers universities to enhance the impact of their research and strengthens global knowledge-sharing initiatives,' she said.
Springer Nature Japan, South-East Asia and Oceania vice president (sales) and managing director Antoine Bocquet said the agreement demonstrates the vital role that TAs play as a sustainable and scalable model for all regions moving towards an open access future.
'In recent years, we have seen a growing demand in Malaysia –both in terms of downloads where content has been accessible, and in denials where it has not.
'Malaysia has already made significant progress towards achieving open access for its researchers, with 57% of all Malaysian research published as open access by 2022. This agreement builds on that momentum,' he said.
The latest agreement is the seventh that Springer Nature has signed within Asia, following Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan. The publisher signed its first TA in 2014 and now has over 80 TAs in place, supporting researchers from over 3,700 institutions.
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