Open Access Week 2022 will take place from October 24–30. Its theme, “Open for Climate Justice,” is an important one that speaks to the central role open knowledge sharing and OA policies play in addressing our world’s most pressing problems. The COVID-19 pandemic presented us with an immediate, undeniable example of the necessity (and ability) of our global community of knowledge creators to come together, as well as the potential benefits of that collaboration when traditional incentives like prestige and impact are set aside for the fundamental goal of furthering human understanding for public good.1
It wasn’t long before this experience left many of us calling for similar action to address climate change, among other crisis. As the OA Week organizing committee states,
Openness can create pathways to more equitable knowledge sharing and serve as a means to address the inequities that shape the impacts of climate change and our response to them. This year’s focus on Climate Justice seeks to encourage connection and collaboration among the climate movement and the international open community. Sharing knowledge is a human right, and tackling the climate crisis requires the rapid exchange of knowledge across geographic, economic, and disciplinary boundaries.2
To these ends, Knowledge Futures is planning two virtual events during OA week 2022 to highlight the work individuals, organizations, and publishing communities are doing, often with the support of or related to our open products.
Climate Justice Pub[Pub] Crawl
October 25, 2022 | 1pm ET>>Register here<<
Join us during OA Week 2022 for a fun, informative, and inspirational Pub Crawl! This one-hour event will feature 5-minute talks from several PubPub communities publishing on topics related to climate change and climate justice with time for questions and discussion at the end. Participating Communities will take attendees on a brief tour of their publishing spaces, discussing their goals, motivations for sharing openly, and any insights about their processes and collaborations toward the end of learning from one another and promoting greater open sharing in this space.
PubPub Communities publishing on climate justice and related topics include:
presented in collaboration with LYRASIS and Media Studies Press
October 27, 2022 | 12:30pm ET >>Register Here<<
On August 25th, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released new guidelines to make federally-funded research immediately available to the public at no cost. As noted in the OSTP's press release, this policy shift will result in the swift (and embargo-free) opening of access to research and data supported by tax-payer dollars. The implications of these new guidelines range from the logistical to the cultural and signal a renewed reliance on the development and implementation of open access funding models and infrastructures.
Sharla Lair—Senior Strategist, Open Access & Scholarly Communication Initiatives at LYRASIS—will speak about the options available to existing and new publishing groups looking to adopt an open model, as well as the LYRASIS Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP). Jefferson Pooley—Professor of Media & Communication at Muhlenberg College and the Director of Media Studies Press—will also speak to his experience running an open publication supported by the OACIP. This discussion is intended to be helpful to publications and knowledge-sharing groups that are new, existing, already open, and/or are looking to move to an open model. It is not limited to groups publishing on topics related to climate justice or those who receive funding from the US federal government.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
