Open Access Week 2023
This year, we are inspired by the 2023 Open Access Week Theme "Community over Commercialization" and will be hosting events and encouraging forms of Open Access that prioritize community building over the commercialization of academic publishing.
Want to learn more, get involved, or discuss your options for making your work Open Access? Reach out to Eloise at tes025@bucknell.edu
Calendar Events
Open Information Futures Panel:
Not long ago, the commercial internet heralded an information utopia. Today, that vision seems far away. Access to information, knowledge, and news is constrained by paywalls on the individual level and by material inequalities on the national and international levels.
Who can access knowledge? Who controls access to knowledge? And who is able to distribute the knowledge they produce? In short, who exercises power in today's globalized knowledge economy?
Join us in-person in Hildreth Mirza Hall or online on October 24, 3 p.m. for a roundtable of researchers, information professionals, and activists from around the world who are seeking answers.
Event Details:
- October 24, 3 pm
- Hildreth Mirza Hall or online
- Add this to your Calendar
Lunch Discussion: Open And Accessible
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If our world runs on data, information, and knowledge, questions of who can access what information under what circumstances become deeply important. The open access movement and the disability justice movement can both help us critique, expand upon, and imagine new ways of sharing information. How can we bring together these sets of principles and practices to fight against information enclosures and make our research and teaching more accessible to all?
This Open Access Week event will provide tools, insight from colleagues, and camaraderie about the overlaps and differences between open and accessible (This event will also provide lunch! Please RSVP) as we work towards more just and equitable information futures.
Recommended reading: Open access to research can close gaps for people with disabilities by Bonnielin Swenor and JR Rizzo
Event Details:
- Wednesday October 25th, 12pm
- Traditional Reading Room
- RSVP forthcoming
Doughnuts and Coffee with Library & IT: Open Access Publishing
Part of an ongoing series, come join your colleagues and L&IT experts in discussing different approaches to Open Access, learn from the experiences of others, and reflect on this year's OA week events.
Event Details:
- October 26th, 8-9:20 am
- Traditional Reading Room, Bertrand Library
- Add this event to your Calendar
Display, Data Justice
In October the main staircase of the library will feature an exhibit on Data Justice and the commercialization of data we produce in our daily lives. If you would like your students to reflect on these issues, please consider assigning them this related assignment as an extracurricular opportunity.
Theme Description
From the OA Week website:
“Community over Commercialization” is the theme for this year’s International Open Access Week (October 23-29). This theme encourages a candid conversation about which approaches to open scholarship prioritize the best interests of the public and the academic community—and which do not.
Adopted by its 193 Member States, the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science highlights the need to prioritize community over commercialization in its calls for the prevention of “inequitable extraction of profit from publicly funded scientific activities” and support for “non-commercial publishing models and collaborative publishing models with no article processing charges.” By focusing on these areas, we can achieve the original vision outlined when open access was first defined: “an old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good.”
When commercial interests are prioritized over those of the communities that research seeks to serve, many concerning issues arise. Open Access Week provides an opportunity for individuals to discuss questions that are most relevant in their local context. These might include: What is lost when a shrinking number of corporations control knowledge production rather than researchers themselves? What is the cost of business models that entrench extreme levels of profit? When does the collection and use of personal data begin to undermine academic freedom? Can commercialization ever work in support of the public interest? What options for using community-controlled infrastructure already exist that might better serve the interests of the research community and the public (such as preprint servers, repositories, and open publishing platforms)? How can we shift the default toward using these community-minded options?