Increasing the visibility of and access to scientific research in the Republic of Moldova

Organized by the Republican Scientific Agricultural Library of the State Agrarian University of Moldova, in collaboration with FAO, the second edition of the online Round Table was held on 8 June 2021.

Divided into two parts, the round table was dedicated to discussions on increasing the visibility of and access to Moldovan scientific research, based on trends in the management and dissemination of agricultural scientific content in AGRIS and AGROVOC.

The Round Table was attended by 45 participants, including PhD students, teachers and researchers from the State Agrarian University of Moldova, researchers from other institutions, journal publishers, and librarians from various public, academic and specialized libraries possessing collections in agricultural and related sciences.

In the opening session, Imma Subirats, the FAO information management officer responsible for coordinating the AGRIS, AGROVOC and AGORA programs, emphasized the role of AGRIS and AGROVOC in the global information space and their importance for the agricultural community in the Republic of Moldova.

She highlighted the collaboration between FAO and the State Agrarian University of Moldova, which has significantly increased the visibility of the scientific results of Moldovan scientists in the global information space, as well as the number of AGROVOC concepts and terms in Romanian. She also referred to the awareness-raising and training activities, organized by the library in collaboration with FAO, and to the AGRIS and AGROVOC user guides that have been translated into Romanian.

The second introductory speaker of the session, Liudmila Costin, Director of the Republican Scientific Agricultural Library, expressed her desire to nurture this collaboration. The library director pointed out the need to extend the collaboration between libraries and scientific institutions and researchers at the national level to better consolidate efforts to integrate agricultural information and data from the Republic of Moldova in the global informational environment.

The part of the Round Table dedicated to AGRIS covered a range of topics related to: new approaches and evolutions in AGRIS information technology; the AGRIS impact on data providers and information users; the role of the AGRIS-MOLDOVA Center in promoting the agricultural research from the Republic of Moldova worldwide; shaping the new possibilities of collaboration between the agricultural institutions from the Republic of Moldova.

It presented the encouraging results of the campaign, "Increase the visibility of your research through AGRIS!", which was aimed at increasing the incorporation of scientific literature from the Republic of Moldova into AGRIS.

Organized during the period November 2020 - April 2021, the campaign strengthened the efforts of Moldovan researchers to promote their research worldwide, with over 300 scientific publications indexed in the AGRIS database. The researchers expressed their desire to participate in this campaign to increase the visibility, international audience and citations of their publications.

This session also highlighted the need for:

• Increasing awareness of the role of AGRIS in agricultural research;
• Encouraging researchers and institutions to use AGRIS not only as information consumers, but also as AGRIS data providers;
• Improving the collaboration with local libraries and publishers to increase the collection of metadata about scientific publications in food and agriculture in the Republic of Moldova according to AGRIS standards and good practices and submitting them to AGRIS;
• Developing students’ skills in searching information in AGRIS database;
• Attracting researchers to participate in the campaign „Increase the visibility of your research through AGRIS!” as its deadline was extended until November 2021;
• Organizing a training for AGRIS data providers from the Republic of Moldova on how to provide metadata;
• Disseminating information about AGRIS through the AGRIS directory, placed on the library's website, social networks, e-mail etc.

The AGRIS and AGROVOC directories were launched on the library website during the Round Table. These two directories aim to promote the library's activities within the AGRIS system and the AGROVOC editorial community and provide information of interest to all those who want to discover more about AGRIS and AGROVOC. The categories of information presented by both directories include news, general information on AGRIS and AGROVOC, access methods, organized activities (round tables, campaigns, trainings, webinars etc.), publications on AGRIS and AGROVOC in Romanian etc.