The international PUBMET conference, which brings together stakeholders in open scholarly publishing every year, was held at the University Campus in Zadar from 9 to 11 September 2026. This year's topics focused on the future of scholarly communication, diamond open access, integrity in scholarly publishing, open science, and the development and sustainability of the infrastructures and communities that support it.
As a regular active participant in the conference, SRCE once again participated this year with two presentations and one poster presentation, delivered by Iva Vidović and Ljiljana Jertec Musap from the Data Management Sector.
One of the presentations introduced the plan for establishing a national EOSC node, aimed at encouraging the integration and further development of services that SRCE, as Croatia's national e-infrastructure provider, develops and operates in close cooperation with key national stakeholders supporting open science.
The second presentation presented the results of the first certification of journals in Hrčak, conducted in the first half of 2026. As part of the certification process, more than 400 journals in Hrčak were evaluated, and journals that met the established criteria received the corresponding certification label.
The poster presentation introduced SRCE's existing courses in the areas of research data management and open science: “Research Data Management”, “Documentation and Anonymisation of Research Data”, and “Open Science and Licensing of Research Results”. During 2026, the courses will be revised to align them with developments in infrastructure and the National Open Science Plan, as well as to improve the user experience and facilitate the adoption of the content. In addition to the existing courses, a new self-paced online course, “Research Software Management”, will be introduced, providing participants with a basic understanding of research software, its role in open and reproducible research, and good practices for its management.
More than one hundred participants gathered over the three days of the conference, including editors of scholarly and professional journals, publishers, librarians and information specialists, as well as representatives of policymakers. Participants exchanged experiences, information and the latest knowledge in the fields of scholarly publishing, open science and scholarly communication.
