State Scientific and Technical Library of Ukraine and the DOAJ Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding
On 18 August 2026, the State Scientific and Technical Library of Ukraine and the DOAJ Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a national partnership to strengthen open access journal publishing in Ukraine.
The memorandum was signed by Joanna Ball, Managing Director of DOAJ, and Alla Zharinova, Acting Director of SSTL. The partnership begins in September 2026.
SSTL becomes DOAJ’s national partner in Ukraine, drawing on its role as operator of the country’s open science infrastructure — URIS, OUCI and the national ORCID, EIFL and Research4Life consortiums. The Library will provide national coordination, training for editors and publishers, Ukrainian-language localisation of DOAJ guidance, and a helpdesk for journals preparing applications. DOAJ will contribute training resources, expertise and communications support.
Around a quarter of the journals on Ukraine’s national List of Scientific Professional Publications are currently indexed in DOAJ. Most of the rest already operate on open access terms but lack documented policies and clear licensing — barriers that guidance can remove.
The memorandum does not affect DOAJ’s editorial independence: applications are assessed solely against DOAJ’s published criteria.
The partnership runs from September 2026 to August 2027, with annual renewal.
