SERSCIDA is designed as a strategic project for supporting the cooperation and exchange of knowledge between the EU countries associated within the Council of European Social Sciences Data Archives (CESSDA) and the Western Balkan Countries (WBC) in the field of social science data archiving. The project addresses the issues of potentials of usage of information-communication technologies for the benefits of scientific research and exchange of knowledge as laid down in the call for proposals topic. The project aims to produce tangible results and improve the capacities for exchange of knowledge and data collected through research in social sciences between the European countries and WBC involved.
On Monday and Tuesday 26-27 November 2012 second meeting of the FP7 SERSCIDA project team were held in the premises of the Institute of Economic Sciences in Belgrade. During the meeting, results of the research on the current state of research infrastructure and researchers’ practices in the field preservation, archiving and dissemination of social science research data in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Research was conducted by Institute of Economic Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, and Human Rights Center of the Sarajevo University with support of the EU project partners.
During the second part of the meeting participants defined further steps in project implementation with focus on organizational aspects of conference at which results of the SERSCIDA project will be presented to wider public. Conference will be held at the end of March 2013 in Belgrade.
'Open Access' refers to the practice of granting free Internet access to research publications and data. As all research and innovation builds on earlier achievements, an efficient system for broad dissemination of and access to research publications and raw data can accelerate scientific progress. The OECD Declaration of 2008 states "that open access to, and unrestricted use of data promotes scientific progress and facilitates the training of researchers," as well as maximizing "the value derived from public investments in data collection efforts." SERSCIDA will address the need for improved and open access to and dissemination of primary data collected through research in social sciences while at the same time trying to support reinforcement of the existing national strategies and structures, and to contribute to development of new ones.