The theme for the 2018 International Open Access Week, to be held October 22-28, will be “designing equitable foundations for open knowledge.”

This year’s theme reflects a scholarly system in transition. While governments, funders, universities, publishers, and scholars are increasingly adopting open policies and practices, how these are actually implemented is still in flux. As open becomes the default, all stakeholders must be intentional about designing these new, open systems to ensure that they are inclusive, equitable, and truly serve the needs of a diverse global community. This year’s Open Access Week invites all interested stakeholders to participate in advancing this important work.

Established by SPARC and partners in the student community in 2008, International Open Access Week is an opportunity to take action in making openness the default for research—to raise the visibility of scholarship, accelerate research, and turn breakthroughs into better lives. This year’s Open Access Week will be held from October 22nd through the 28th; however, those celebrating the week are encouraged to schedule local events whenever is most suitable during the year and to utilize themes that are most effective locally.

For more information about International Open Access Week, please visit www.openaccessweek.org. You can follow the conversation on Twitter at #OAWeek.

Paywall: The Business of Scholarship

Paywall: The Business of Scholarship, produced by Jason Schmitt, provides focus on the need for open access to research and science, questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers, examines the 35-40% profit margin associated with the top academic publisher Elsevier and looks at how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google.

Paywall: The Business of Scholarship (Full Movie) CC BY 4.0 from Paywall The Movie on Vimeo.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

• You can learn more about Open Access and about IDIBELL’s repository on Ignasi Labastida’s talk, head of the Knowledge dissemination office (CRAI) at UB, next Friday 26th. Do not miss it! 
• This week, OpenAIRE and FOSTER are hosting a series of webinars and online tutorials about the Open Access, Open Data, Open Science and many other topics! 
• You can also check out some Open Access – related videos on IDIBELL’s Youtube channel: