Pre-conference: OPEN-ACCESS PUBLISHING

Open-access publishing has matured significantly in recent years. Once largely the domain of nonprofits and academic departments, open-access publications are now a sizable and growing segment of the scholarly publishing marketplace increasingly represented by commercial players. This session will explore the  growth and development of the rapidly developing open-access publishing market segment and how Open Access can fuel innovation in both research and commerce. Speakers will elaborate on the fundamental characteristics of growth in the OA publishing segment, business models that are emerging and evolving to support it, and on steps needed to ensure the potential for open-access publishing to fuel advancement is fully realized.  

Pre-conference: OPEN-ACCESS POLICY DEVELOPMENT

This workshop will offer a description of the main types of Open Access policy, presented by the people who implemented them in a number of prestigious universities in Europe and the US. The presenters will describe their policies and we will clarify the differences between them and then look at how effective these policies have been in collecting OA content.

The Q&A part of the workshop will enable participants to dig into the details of implementation, the difficulties and how they were overcome, and to learn how the policies were championed through the institutions in the first place.

The overall aim of the workshop is to illustrate how a policy is arrived at and worked through in an institution, what it takes to get the policy implemented, and what follow-up processes and activities are needed to ensure its maximal effectiveness.Learn from the experts who have done it all and come out the other side with tips and advice for those about to enter the fray.

Pre-conference: OPEN-ACCESS INFRASTRUCTURE

Over the past few years, Open Access has become an integral part in the discussion about the future of scholarship. Many ongoing debates among stakeholders, and a growing number of policies evolving on the institutional, national, and international levels show the significance of this topic. However, the development of a firm infrastructure is indispensable for the full realization of Open Access and has yet to be clearly defined.

This pre-conference session on open-access infrastructure comprises two different parts. The first part will address components in the vast landscape of enabling Open Access to research outputs. The second part will be a panel discussion with experts on the different opportunities and challenges within this field. In the first section, renowned stakeholders including scholars, policy makers, and representatives from innovative service units will highlight different aspects of an open-access environment. The speakers will touch on the development and maintenance of repositories, publication platforms, tools, and virtual workbenches, as well as the implementation of sustainable funding schemes for open-access publishing and the management of open-access technology. Scholars will provide insight into Open Access and their daily work and discuss the “socialization” of Open Access within different scholarly communities, as well as how this influences the way research is actually conducted today. The panel discussion will then explore issues around the sustainability of open-access tools and the establishment of technical, organizational and legal frameworks that support true Open Access to research. The panel will be comprised of international experts and funders who will join the speakers from the first session.  The session will be of specific interest to research institution leaders, research funders, scholars, and Open Access officers.

The worldwide policy environment

Driven by the desire to maximize their investments in research and increase the pace of discovery, research funders are increasingly  adopting policies that require open online access to results of the scientific and scholarly research they fund. International governmental organizations, such as The World Bank, are also actively considering “open” as a means to maximize the impact of the information and data they produce –  facilitating connections and discoveries that can directly benefit society. This session will consider the development of U.S. and European initiatives to accelerate the pace of science and research through open online sharing of published articles and data and consider: by what innovative frameworks do we assess the successful impact of scholarship, research, and research investments in the open knowledge environment? 

Transforming Research through Open Online Access to Discovery Inputs and Outputs

Open Access is abolishing the border between research inputs and outputs and transforming the process of scholarly inquiry at its most basic level. Data and finished research products tend to be more and more collapsed into one permanent flow of information, moving backwards and forwards, and are no longer easily separable. This session will examine how enabling researchers to access raw data and the fruits of other scholars’ work helps to define what can and should be investigated, the scope and depth of the experiment, and the ultimate contribution of the research path pursued. Speakers will zero in the conduct of scholarship in the digital environment, how researchers are able to search more deeply and intelligently, how openness helps to advance the pace of discovery, and what opportunities exist in a fully open digital space.

Creation of Innovative New Opportunities for Scholarship and Business

This session will focus on exploring how opening access to science and scholarship in the digital arena creates opportunities for innovation and economic development by making it possible to build on the material in new ways -- both in creating new research pathways and projects, as well as potentially building new business opportunities for commercial organizations to develop new services, applications and products. Speakers will offer concrete examples of how opportunities to innovate are being taken advantage of in the “Open” space.

The Impact of Open Access and Open Repositories on Research in the Humanities

Open Access in general and open repositories in specific have had a transformative impact on research in the humanities. New modes of scholarly collaboration and communication are emerging alongside new opportunities for humanities researchers to leverage shared infrastructure and tools. At the same time, the dynamics of scholarship in the humanities demand that approaches toward open sharing differ from those in other disciplines. This session will examine these dynamics, review recent developments, and consider what has been learned thus far at the intersection of Open Access and digital cultural heritage collections. Presenters will explore key questions and opportunities such as: What are the unique challenges of moving toward open in the humanities and social sciences? What are the new kinds of research questions that the open availability of material makes it possible to ask? What new ways of disseminating results are made possible? How is peer review changed when reviewers have access to the full scope of sources used and not just a few lines of citation? What is the potential when resources across the humanities are not only open, but fully interoperable?

Open Education: Linking Learning and Research through Open Access

Open Access to scientific literature and Open Educational Resources have been developing independently without much collaboration over the past decade. However, there are clear synergies in the goals, approaches, collaborative models, and benefits each sphere offers research and education. This session will provide an opportunity to examine how the two movements can learn and draw from each other in terms of best practices and success models for sustainability.

Public Interaction: the Range and Power of Open Access for Business, Citizen Science and Patients

This session will highlight the opportunities that opening access to science and scholarship brings for the public to both access and interact with digital information. Speakers will explore how access to this information enables individuals and groups to both participate in the research process, and to help drive subsequent development. The panel will present business, citizen science, and patient perspectives that focus on the potential societal benefits, policy outcomes, and economic opportunities that opening access can bring to the public.