Opening doors to global equity in open access

“Universal Open Access is the first of Eight fundamental principles for scientific publishing, developed under ISC’s project on Scientific Publishing and adopted by ISC Members by a resolution of the October 2021 General Assembly. Today, nearly half of all new research articles are openly accessible in some format, but fee-based open access – where authors pay for publication – is increasing, raising concerns around affordability and equity in the context of very diverse levels of funding within the global science system.

In order to support open access to scientific information, with no barriers for authors or readers, there is a need to better understand the challenges in different settings, and for coordination among actors that contribute financially to scholarly publishing.

On 21 and 22 November the International Science Council (ISC), OA2020, the Association of African Universities (AAU), cOAlition S, Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), UNESCO and Science Europe co-organized the first in a series of three workshops on ‘Global Equity in Open Access Publishing’. The first workshop, which took place online, focussed on Africa and Europe and was open to different stakeholders who fund or produce research, such as researchers, university administrators, science councils and grant funders, and ministries of research and education.”

OASPA Webinar: Gaining Insights into Global OA eBook Usage – Questions answered – OASPA

 

Following on from the recent webinar entitled Analyzing Open – Gaining Insights into Global OA eBook Usage, we asked our speakers to respond to the unanswered questions posed by attendees via the webinar chat. You can find those questions and answers below. This may be useful for those who missed it or wish to share with colleagues.

AmeliCA vs Plan S: Same target, two different strategies to achieve Open Access. – AmeliCA

On 4 September 2018, a group of national research funding organizations, with the support of the European Commission and the European Research Council (ERC), announced the launch of COAlition S, an initiative to make full and immediate Open Access (OA) to research publications a reality. It is built around Plan S, which consists of one target and 10 principles (Science Europe, 2019). The target is:

“By 2020 scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants provided by participating national and European research councils and funding bodies, must be published in compliant Open Access Journals or on compliant Open Access Platforms. “

At the same time but in another region of the world AmeliCA was brewing, the extension of REDALYC’s philosophy, knowledge and technology to the Global South (Becerril-Garcia & Aguado-Lopez, 2018). AmeliCA is a multi-institutional community-driven initiative supported by UNESCO that arises in response to the international, regional, national and institutional contexts of Open Access, which seeks a collaborative, sustainable, protected and non-commercial solution for Open Knowledge in Latin America and the Global South (AmeliCA, 2018). This institution of Commons was launched at the Conference of CLACSO on November 21, 2018, in the “UNESCO Special Forum: Democratization of academic knowledge. The challenges for open access to knowledge. “

 

Recording and Slides: Open Access in the global South: Perspectives from the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network

“The recording and the slides from today’s webinar entitled Open Access in the global South: Perspectives from the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network are now available on Zenodo. Prof. Leslie Chan shared key lessons from OCSDNet which is a research network with scientists, development practitioners, community members and activists from 26 countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Based on OCS experience, he questioned openness and public good, discussed open science definition beyond academy. Prof Chan also highlighted that principles as in the definition of Next Generation Repository should be guiding the technology and the infrastructures, not the other way around.”