The Ministry of Education and Science appeals to large publishers and companies to stop cooperation with Russia and Belarus

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine sent an appeal to large publishers of scientific literature, companies and scientific societies that own leading scientific information e-sources, urging them to take the following measures in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine:

• to stop completely cooperation with the Russian Federation, to deprive Russian institutions access to electronic sources of scientific information (journals, books, databases); 
• to stop cooperation with citizens of the Russian Federation working for companies and their representative offices; 
• to stop carrying out the educational and other activities for scientists from the Russian Federation.

Additionally, the Ministry has also appealed e to suspend cooperation with the Republic of Belarus and to deprive Belarusian institutions of access to all electronic resources of scientific information.

Letters have been sent to more than 30 publishers, companies and scientific societies such as Clarivate, Elsevier, Springer Nature, John Wiley & Sons, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, SAGE Publications, Emerald Publishing, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Royal Society of Chemistry, etc., whose electronic sources are available to scientists from Russia and Belarus.

Russian scientists were expected to be the intellectual vanguard of Russian society, showing critical thinking as opposed to propaganda narratives against Ukraine and the entire democratic world. With their authoritative opinion, they were expected to influence the Russian society, which tolerates the war crimes of the Russian army in Ukraine. Unfortunately for the most part they show the opposite.

Some large publishers and companies have already published their statements in support of Ukraine, stating that they have stopped cooperating with Russia and have taken steps to support Ukrainian scientists. In particular, a joint statement was published on March 31 by a number of large publishers, who reported that they had taken the unprecedented step of suspending sales and marketing of products and services to research organizations in Russia and Belarus.

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine expects that all publishers of scientific literature, international companies and scientific societies, without exception, will support this appeal for a proper response to the aggression of Russia and Belarus against Ukraine.

In letters to the largest publishers of scientific literature and international companies, the Ministry has also noted the importance of providing Ukrainian scientists with access to electronic sources of scientific information (journals, books, patents and other databases) to support their research and innovation activities at this difficult time.