How to promote inclusiveness in Open Access Publishing Models

TYAN members Roula Abdel-Massih, and Franco Cabrerizo helped organize IAP Session 9: “How to promote inclusiveness in Open Access Publishing Models” which was carried out to initiate discussion on “Open Access” and “Article Processing Charges” (APCs) with scientists and stakeholders from the global community.

Read more at:  https://www.interacademies.org/page/session-9-how-promote-inclusiveness-open-access-publishing-models 

   Based on the UNESCO Recommendation (2021), open science can be conceived as an inclusive construct that combines various movements and aims to make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available, accessible and reusable for everyone, to increase scientific collaboration and sharing of information for the benefits of science and society, and to open the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation, and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community. The UNESCO recommendation on Open Science relies on an inclusive, transparent, and consultative process involving all countries and stakeholders. Many initiatives were developed following this recommendation.

   On the 2021 theme of the International Open Access Week, ‘It matters how we open knowledge: building structural equity’, ALLEA released a statement entitled “Equity in Open Access”, which addressed how access publishing routes and large read-and-write deals contribute to establishing inequitable structures within academic research. In the same line, TYAN (TWAS Young Affiliates Network) and the Argentinian Young Academy (AJA) developed a joint initiative focused on the impact on early-career researchers, particularly those from developing countries, emphasizing the extremely high and, in most cases, unfair publication costs for authors. These initiatives, among others, promote awareness on the fact that although it is increasingly recognized that Open Sciences as a critical accelerator for the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, still many challenges limit the goal of reducing knowledge gaps, such as the costs of article processing charges (APC) associated with some open access (OA) publication models such as the gold OA. APCs are economically prohibitive for many scientists, especially from developing-countries.

   

Primary session organizers: Luciana Balboa (Global Young Academy (GYA) ​& Academia Joven de Argentina (AJA)), Roula Abdel-Massih (TWAS Young Affiliates Network (TYAN)), Franco Cabrerizo (TYAN ​& AJA), and Sandra Lopez (GYA),    

  • Prof. Ariel M. Silber, University of São Paulo, Brazil    
  • Prof. Ana María Cetto, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
  • Prof.  Abdullah Shams Bin Tariq, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
  • Prof. Fernanda Beigel, CONICET-National University of Cuyo, Argentina
  • Prof. Luke Drury, ALLEA – the European Federation of Academies of Academies of Science and Humanities, Germany