Leonidas Donskis library is open 24/6!

On December 1–13 Leonidas Donskis library (V. Putvinskio St. 23, Kaunas) is open 24/6.

Let’s remember the rules:

From 9 p.m. access to the library will only be possible through the courtyard.
At night (9 p.m. – 8 a.m.) only VMU students can visit the library, therefore, at the entrance it is necessary to present a document confirming the status of a VMU student or employee (LSP, ISIC or certificate).
Librarians will be working in the library from 8:00 to 21:00, and security guards will be on duty at night to ensure order and safety.
After 9 p.m., only the library area will be open, so visiting other parts of the building (except for the toilets on the same floor) is prohibited.

Good luck with your exams!

Trial access to Britannica Academic

The rich combination of the Encyclopedia Britannica plus Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, journals and periodicals, and many other research tools provides the variety of reliable sources that users need to consult when conducting thorough research – all from one resource. Updated daily.

New feature – the ability to search using the artificial intelligence tool „Ask Britannica“ (video).

The database is available to University users until 1 January, 2026.

Log in: VMU computer network. For remote access passwords please ask librarians or write db@bibl.vdu.lt (please write from University e-mail system).

EBSCO online sessions in November 2025

Registrations for the training cycle organized by EBSCO designed for librarians, researchers, teachers and students, who would like to learn more about EBSCO.

Central & Eastern European Academic Source Database – Support for Researchers of Scientific Literature in the Region
13^thNovember 2025, 1:00 PM (45 minutes) | Registration

Explore the Central & Eastern European Academic Source Database, which contains numerous journals from Central and Eastern Europe. Learn basic and advanced search techniques (keywords, filters, languages, countries) and work with results, including full-text access and exporting options. This training is intended for researchers, students, and librarians working with literature from the region.

EBSCOhost in a PhD Student’s Research Work – A Tool Worth Knowing
20^thNovember 2025, 11:00 AM (60 minutes) | Registration

This session will help doctoral students efficiently and confidently use the EBSCOhost platform—from basic functions to advanced search strategies and research data management. Learn to formulate research queries, manage bibliographies, export results, use Boolean operators, filters, and delimiters (year, document type, language). Tips will also be provided for finding popular journals, identifying recent articles, tracking citations, and building a theoretical foundation for your doctoral dissertation.

Inspec with Full Text in Practice – How to Effectively Search for Literature in Science and Technology
26^thNovember 2025, 1:00 PM (50 minutes) | Registration

Join this session to learn how to effectively use Inspec with Full Text, an advanced research database providing access to full-text journals in physics, engineering, computer science, and related disciplines. Participants will discover how to search efficiently, use subject classifications, and take advantage of indexing tools to support academic research and teaching.

To stay up-to-date with upcoming training sessions, we recommend that you bookmark this site and visit it regularly to sign up for any new trainings.

Library recommendations for Open Access Week

This week, we invite you to dive into the history, ideas, and practices of open access. Below are resources that will help you quickly understand this year’s Open Access Week theme, “Who owns our knowledge?”

Watch:
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. (2024). kn/own/able project: A new approach to understanding knowledge and ownership. (13 min.) – A new look at knowledge ownership, open access, and intellectual property.
Schmitt, J. (2018). Paywall: The business of scholarship. The movie. (1 hr. 5 min.) – A documentary film about the behind-the-scenes world of academic publishing and the open access movement.

Read:

Moore, S. A. (2025). Publishing beyond the market: Open access, care, and the commons. University of Michigan Press. – Community knowledge management as an alternative to commercial open access.

Schäfer, D., Mamidipudi, A., & Buning, M. (Eds.). (2023). Ownership of knowledge: beyond intellectual property. MIT Press. – The book proposes a new system of thinking about knowledge ownership that challenges the mechanisms of inequality in contemporary society.

Diamond open access: when open articles cost nothing to the author or the reader

Diamond open access is an open access publishing model in which scientific articles are free to readers and authors do not pay article processing charges (APCs). Publishing is funded by institutions, consortia, libraries, or research communities. In this way, the dissemination of knowledge does not depend on the budgets of individual authors or readers, but on community solidarity and long-term infrastructure support.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with diamond open access journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) (almost 14,000 journals). You can view the list of diamond open access journals published by Vytautas Magnus University here.

Why is this important?

Fairness and inclusion. Authors from smaller institutions or countries can publish on an equal footing.
Control of knowledge for the community. Publishing decisions and infrastructure are more often managed by the academic community (associations, universities, libraries).
Transparency. Clear costs and open accountability reduce the pressure to commercialize.

How does this work in practice?

Journals and platforms (mostly managed by scientific societies, universities, or libraries) review, edit, and distribute publications without any additional fees.
Open standards: Creative Commons licenses (e.g., CC BY) and open metadata are used.

Diamond open access is one of the clearest answers to this year’s Open Access Week question, “Who owns knowledge?” as knowledge belongs to the community, and the infrastructure for its dissemination is managed and supported by the academic community itself.

How to take advantage of article processing charge (APC) discounts

On the occasion of Open Access Week, we would like to remind you that VDU authors can take advantage of article processing charge discounts.

What is an article processing charge (APC)?

APC (Article Processing Charge) is a fee paid to the publisher so that the publication becomes immediately available online to everyone. It can be paid by the author, institution, or funders. Discounts depend on publisher agreements and the institutional affiliation of the corresponding author.

Where you can publish for free (if the corresponding author is from VMU)?

Cambridge University Press (CUP) – free publication in journals from the list.
Cogitatio Press – free publication in all open access journals.
De Gruyter – free publication in English and German journals from the list.
Emerald – free publication in journals from the list. The agreement provides for a limited number of free articles. Lithuanian authors can publish 15 articles per year free of charge. You can check how many free publication opportunities are left here.
Microbiology Society – free publication in journals from the list.
Oxford University Press (OUP) – free publication in journals from the list. The agreement provides for a limited number of free articles. Lithuanian authors can publish 14 articles per year free of charge. You can monitor how many free publication opportunities remain here.
SAGE – free publication in hybrid journals.

Where discounts are applied

Brill – 60% discount when publishing in journals from the list.
Edward Elgar – £500 discount when publishing in journals from the list.
MDPI – 10% discount when publishing in open access journals.
SAGE – 20% discount when publishing in gold open access journals.
Taylor & Francis – 50% discount when publishing in journals from the list.
World Scientific – 50% discount when publishing in journals from the list.

How to make use of it (5 steps)

Check the list of agreements with VMU: whether your journal/publisher is included and what conditions apply.
When submitting your manuscript, indicate your VMU affiliation and use @vdu.lt email address – this will identify whether you are eligible for a discount.
Follow the instructions in the publisher’s system (Rightslink, SciPris, SAGE Choice, T&F Submission Portal, etc.) and select the discount if requested.
Select a Creative Commons license (CC BY is recommended).
If the discount is not applied, contact the publisher or the VMU library.

What to note

Discounts are determined based on the institutional affiliation of the corresponding author.
Journal type:
- Gold Open Access – all journal articles are open access, APC fees are paid by the author/institution/funding agency.
- Hybrid journals – closed journals, accessible only to subscribers. Only paid articles are open access.
When annual limits apply (Oxford University Press and Emerald), the option to print for free is given on a first-come, first-served basis (apply as early as possible).
Technical details are important: carefully indicate your institutional affiliation, use @vdu.lt; if necessary, indicate that a discount should be applied and manually add a note.
Lithuanian research Council project funds do not usually cover publishing in hybrid journals.

Who owns our knowledge? Open Access Week

October 20–26, 2025, is the Open Access Week, an annual global initiative promoting open access to scientific results. This year’s theme is “Who owns our knowledge?” It invites the scientific community to rethink who has access to scientific and academic results, how knowledge is created and shared, and who owns the knowledge itself. It also encourages people to identify which open science ecosystem solutions best serve the interests of society and the academic community.

In recent years, community-driven knowledge-sharing models, such as diamond open access, have grown worldwide; more editorial boards are reclaiming ownership of journals, and institutions are striving to reduce their dependence on commercial databases and metrics.

At the same time, new risks emerge: the use of academic knowledge to train artificial intelligence models without proper consultation or author consent. The counterbalance to this is non-commercial models supported by the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and the Toluca-Cape Town Declaration.

During the week, the VMU library invites you to:

Online seminars on open access, research data management, and copyright issues

- A Practical Guide to Open Research

2025-10-22 12:30–15:30 Registration

- Who “owns” research data?

2025-10-23 13:00–13:30 No registration required. Event link (Zoom)

- Open Data in the Humanities: Balancing Legal Constraints, FAIR Principles and AI

2025-10-23 15:00–15:30 More information

Publish your work in open access journals for free or at a discount.
Choose a non-commercial open access model – publish in “diamond” open access journals: journals published by VMU, journals indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
Learn more about the open access movement at the University.

More information about Open Access Week.

Document access status now in search results!

From now on, searching in the VDU CRIS system is even more convenient! Next to each publication title, you will see an access icon that immediately indicates whether the full text of the document is available and what the access conditions are.

This means that even before opening the record, you will be able to quickly assess whether the content is openly accessible or only available to a limited group of users.

The new feature saves time and allows you to access the resources you need more quickly, making working with scientific information even smoother.

Simply search VDU CRIS, and the access icons next to the titles will help you assess the availability of the content in an instant.

Meaning of icons:

EBSCO online sessions in October 2025

Registrations for the training cycle organized by EBSCO designed for librarians, researchers, teachers and students, who would like to learn more about EBSCO.

Publisher Session | Taylor & Francis
Exploring Open Access Publishing: Strategies for Successful Outcomes
15th October 2025, 11:00 AM–12:30 PM | Register

Increasingly, researchers are interested in or required to publish their work as Open Access. While the publishing process is essentially the same, Open Access publishing can offer the opportunity for greater impact and a more transparent process. This session will examine the publishing process and how to increase the likelihood of your work being published. We will cover Open Access models, licensing, how to choose a journal and avoid predatory ones, manuscript preparation, the submission process, and how to navigate peer review. Participants will walk away with a good understanding of what they can expect during the publishing process.

New Nursing Databases in Practice!

15th October 2025, 1:30 PM | Register

Join the training to explore the new resources in the EBSCO collection: Nursing & Allied Health Reference Source and Dynamic Health. These databases provide an excellent source of information and practical guidance in nursing, healthcare, social work, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, rehabilitation, and related fields.

Discover Business Source Ultimate on Its New Interface!
22nd October 2025, 11:00 AM | Register

Join the session to see how this powerful database goes far beyond journals and magazines. Learn how to quickly find SWOT analyses, company profiles, country reports, videos, and more – all in one place, tailored to business, management, and finance research.

What’s New on EBSCO Platforms: Citations, AI Feature, and Natural Language Search
29th October 2025, 11:30 AM | Register

During the training, it will be reviewed the new feature launches on EBSCO platforms:

Citation Counts: powered by Scopus or the EBSCO Scholarly Graph.

AI Insights: provides AI-generated summaries of publications.

Natural Language Search: a search mode that allows users to enter queries in everyday language. Instead of relying on complex keywords or Boolean operators, this feature enables more conversational and intuitive searching.

To stay up-to-date with upcoming training sessions, we recommend that you bookmark this site and visit it regularly to sign up for any new trainings

Trial access to academic writing tool Writefull

The Writefull is a tool designed for academics and university students to proofread scientific texts. Writefull was primarily for the English language but now offers multi-language support by leveraging GPT models alongside its original English-language research model. The Writefull uses language models based on artificial intelligence (AI). The leading all-in-one tool to elevate your academic writing in Word, giving you the best language edits and a suite of powerful writing tools.

The following Writefull products are available during the trial:

Writefull for Word, a plugin that offers corrections to a Word document you are writing. The plugin for Microsoft Word must be downloaded from the Writefull website. After installing the plugin, the Writefull icon will appear in the top toolbar of the Word document. Click on it and after creating a personal account, log in by clicking Sign in*.
Writefull for Overleaf, which work directly while writing texts in Word and in the Overleaf LaTeX editor, respectively*.
Writefull X – access Writefull online*.
Writefull Revise service is available for analyzing already prepared texts*.
Writefull Cite which helps identify cited passages in texts that are missing bibliography entries*.

* Registration is required using a Vytautas Magnus University email address. A single account is sufficient, and the same login details should always be used regardless of the tool.

It is possible to connect directly to Writefull using the e-mail address of Vytautas Magnus University for registration.

The Help Centre is available

YT channel can be useful

January 2025 webinar recording

The access for the University community is valid to 6 November, 2025