Successful campaign to support Ukrainian university publishing and first exchanges
As a result of the support campaign organised by the European initiative SUES (Support to Ukrainian editorial staff)/SESU (Support to Scholarly Publishing in Ukraine), 45 scientific journals and publishers will receive support totalling over €73,000. The campaign also initiated exchanges between publishing professionals in Europe and Ukraine.
SUES is an initiative of European institutions, infrastructures, organisations and French scientific publishing professionals. It was formed in March 2022 to support scientific communication in Ukraine by providing assistance to academic journals and publishers. One of the objectives is to enable these structures to continue their editorial activities despite the war context.
A crowdfunding campaign was launched on May the 6th, 2022, the results of which have exceeded all expectations: by the closing date of June the 24th, more than 73,000 euros had been raised, thanks to the contributions of 157 donors, individuals and organisations, from all over the world (the initial goal was to obtain 16,500 euros, in order to support about ten journals).
To the 118 donations (for a total amount of more than 20,000 euros), collected through crowdfunding launched on the Wemakeit platform, made mainly by individuals, but also from some major public institutions, associations, learned societies and publishers, were added those made by Knowledge Unlatched/Wiley, from the community of publishers and University libraries (36,000 euros, more than 38 donors). Finally, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research has decided to donate an additional 16,500 euros, through its National Fund for Open Science (FNSO), to support 10 additional journals, shared in open access in Ukraine.
This funding will be distributed among 45 Ukrainian scientific journals and publishers. The latter had applied following a survey circulated in May 2022 by SUES, which aimed to gain a better understanding of the Ukrainian scientific publishing landscape, establish contacts with stakeholders, and determine their most urgent needs. The applications were examined by a scientific committee (composition of editorial committees, evaluation procedures, editorial quality, distribution methods), and 45 of them were selected for this first campaign. The Committee took care to take into account the diversity of the disciplines represented.
This funding campaign was accompanied by contacts with representatives of these journals, leading to exchanges and the production of videos. It was followed by the creation of a blog that will keep the community informed of the project’s progress and by the organisation of webinars bringing together European scientific publishers. Beyond the financial aspects, it seems essential to continue the dialogue initiated during this campaign between publishing professionals in Europe and Ukraine.