HCM CITY — HCM City’s Department of Science and Technology on Wednesday signed agreements with eight universities that will join its Science and Technology Information Network (STINET).

STINET, which now has a total of 22 members, launched its website in March and has seen more than 3,000 visits.

The new members are the Industrial University of HCM City, HCM City-based University of Transport and Communications, Hùng Vương University, HCM City University of Finance and Marketing, HCM City University of Economics and Finance, Phạm Ngọc Thạch Medical University, Nguyễn Tất Thành University, and HCM City University of Transport.

In May last year, the department and its Science and Technology Information and Statistics Centre signed cooperation agreements with 12 units including universities, research institutions and libraries in the city. Of those, nine connected their databases to the system.

Nguyễn Kỳ Phùng, deputy of director of the department, said STINET was created with the voluntary cooperation of members, providing science and technology information in textbooks, essays, papers, journals of science and technology research and workshop documents.

HCM City’s Department of Science and Technology on Wednesday signed cooperation agreement with universities to join Science and Technology Information Network. — VNS Photo Ngọc Diệp

STINET aims to enrich science and technology information to serve the needs of research and innovation activities of scientists, researchers, lecturers, businesses, students and communities.

The website www.stinet.gov.vn, allows users to access full-text shared documents and search content.

“We will continue to expand our existing network, adding more members and updating in the near future,” Phùng said.

Last year, the system received more than 145,000 documents including about 15,300 full-text documents, said Bùi Thanh Bằng, director of the department’s Science and Technology Information and Statistics Centre.

Simple and advanced search engines in both Vietnamese and English were also done.

“We will publicise more information in the media to introduce users to the service, add more utilities, and develop applications for iOS and Android,” Bằng said.

Đỗ Văn Xê, rector of Hùng Vương University, said that members should pay close attention to copyright and intellectual property (IP) rights. “It is necessary to respect the policies of each member when publishing their documents,” he said. — VNS