DUSHANBE, October 9, 2012, Asia-Plus – On Monday October 8, Tajikistan’s network of scientific and academic researchers gained an important new resource with the launch of the Tajikistan Virtual Science Library (VSL).

According to the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe, the Tajikistan VSL is a website that provides free and easy access to more than 10 million full-text research articles across many scientific disciplines.  Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA), the site is part of a larger program of technical consultations and training. It includes information on publishing in international journals and research proposal development, organized by the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Health, the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, DOE/NNSA, and CRDF Global.

The Tajikistan VSL website (www.TajikistanVSL.org) was launched on Monday at the National Academy of Sciences.  After the launch, research institute directors, university leaders, government representatives, Academy officials, individual scientists, and librarians from across the country participated in seminars hosted by DOE/NNSA and CRDF Global, intended to familiarize them with the website and its use in research.  DOE/NNSA and CRDF Global plan to implement an extensive national workshop series in 2013 to help users and librarians throughout the country derive the full benefit of the program.

The Tajikistan VSL reportedly consolidates access to more than 12,000 journals from major publishers and prominent international research repositories including the Directory of Open-Access Journals, ArXiv.org, CalTech University, CiteSeer, Cogprints, Eprints, HighWire Press, and research repositories from Lund University and Ghent University.  The Tajikistan VSL allows researchers to search and download articles from the United Nations Research4Life collections: OARE, AGORA, and HINARI. The website can also be expanded to provide access to new journal collections as they become available.

Later this fall, researchers will have the opportunity to access the site remotely by obtaining a log in name and password from their librarian or authorized representative.