Open access in Ukraine: Characteristics and evolution from 2012 to 2021

Abstract

This study investigates the development of open access (OA) to publications produced by authors affiliated with Ukrainian universities and research organizations in the period 2012–2021. To get a comprehensive overview we assembled data from three databases: Dimensions, Web of Science (WoS), and Scopus. Our final data set consisted of 186,000 unique records. To determine the OA status of each article, this study utilized Unpaywall data, which was obtained via API. It was determined that 71.5% of all considered articles during the observed period were openly available at the time of analysis. Notably, 60.9% of the OA papers were disseminated through national journals. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the rate of OA papers was highest in the Humanities, at 89.7%, with 74.8% of papers disseminated through national communication channels. The share of OA papers published in national journals surpassed OA papers in foreign journals across all research areas except Natural Sciences. Another noteworthy finding was that Gold OA emerged as the predominant type of OA over the 10-year period of analysis. We underscore the critical importance of ensuring the FAIRness of national scholarly communication infrastructure for monitoring OA uptake and state support of national publishers.