Open Access
Overview
What is Open Access?
Open Access (OA) is a set of principles and practices through which scientific research outputs are made available publicly through online distribution.
Open Access publishing helps to increase citation counts, increase availability, maximize visibility, reduce publication costs, and thereby minimize the research publication process.
Thus, the Open Access (OA) initiative at USIM is part of the university’s broader move toward open science, aimed at making research outputs freely accessible to the public and the global academic community.
Objectives
The Open Access initiative at USIM aims to:
- Increase visibility and citation of research outputs.
- Enhance global accessibility to scholarly work.
- Promote knowledge sharing and collaboration.
- Support innovation, education, and societal development.
Through this initiative, USIM positions itself as a progressive institution in knowledge democratization, ensuring that research is not confined behind paywalls but benefits society at large.
Establishment of Open Access Policy
USIM is recognized as one of the earliest public universities in Malaysia to implement an Open Access Policy, which was formally approved in 2019.
- The policy provides guidelines, procedures, and responsibilities for researchers and staff.
- It ensures that scholarly works produced by USIM are shared openly without access barriers.
- The initiative supports the university’s mission of “university for society” emphasizing knowledge sharing for public benefit.
Development of Research Repository
A key component of the initiative is the USIM Research Repository System, which is known as Sistem Repositori Penyelidikan (SRP) USIM:
- Serves as a digital platform for storing and disseminating research outputs.
- Allows USIM researchers to upload publications, theses, and other scholarly works.
- Provides free public access to thousands of research materials (over 15,000 items, many in full text).