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Celebrating Open Access Week: Empowering Knowledge for All
Innovation and progress are driven by a simple yet powerful idea: sharing knowledge. Open Access Week, celebrated worldwide from October 21 to 27, annually, promotes free and immediate access to research and educational resources. This year's theme, "Community over Commercialization," highlights the importance of prioritizing the global community's needs and growth over profit-driven models.
What is Open Access Week?
Open Access Week is a time to engage with and promote the principles of open access in research and scholarship. It highlights the importance of making knowledge available to everyone without barriers, ensuring that scientific discoveries and academic resources are shared widely to drive further research, collaboration, and innovation.
Open Access Week provides a unique opportunity to link the worldwide push for open knowledge sharing with important policy changes and social issues impacting people globally. It is celebrated by individuals, institutions, and organizations across the globe, with a global advisory committee overseeing its organization and choosing the annual theme. The official hashtag for the event is #OAweek.
Why "Community over Commercialization"?
The theme for International Open Access Week 2024 will once again be "Community over Commercialization," continuing last year's focus.The continuation of this theme highlights the importance of prioritizing open scholarship for the public and academic communities, offering an opportunity to turn discussions into action.
The questions raised last year are even more pressing in 2024, particularly with the rapid integration of AI into commercial academic systems without community input. Key concerns include corporate control of knowledge, the hidden costs of profit-driven models that increase inequality, threats to academic freedom from data collection, and the need to promote community-driven alternatives like preprint servers and open publishing platforms. Communities are invited to adapt the theme to their context and focus on specific issues. Examples could include "Community over Commercialization: What is Community Governance & Why It Matters," or "Community over Commercialization: Reclaiming Academic Autonomy."
How You Can Get Involved
Open Access Week is an opportunity for everyone to join the conversation. Whether you're a researcher, a student, or someone who believes in the power of shared knowledge, you can contribute by:
- Promoting open access resources in your community.
- Encouraging institutions to adopt open-access-friendly policies.
- Advocating for open access in your research, teaching, or personal learning journey.
A world can be built where knowledge is accessible to everyone, ensuring no one is left behind due to the inability to afford a subscription or access to a database.
We Want to Hear from You!
All ACSE members are welcome to contribute to the discussion. How do you interpret "Community over Commercialization"? Share your brief thoughts (50-60 words) by emailing [email protected], and help explore ways to expand this mission and promote community-centered open-access initiatives. Together, we can create a future where knowledge is freely shared and accessible to all!
Keywords
Open Access Week free access Community over Commercialization academic communities AI in academic systems academic freedom open publishing platforms policy changes global advisory committee #OAweek knowledge accessibility
