Deepening Our Efforts to Prioritize Community over Commercialization

Written By Ashley Gordon

Today marks the start of International Open Access Week, an event designed to catalyze action to prioritize approaches to open scholarship that serve the best interests of the public and the academic community. 

This year’s event continues to highlight the importance of maintaining a focus on prioritizing “Community over Commercialization,” as we collectively wrestle with the pressing need for more equitable models to support contributing to and communicating knowledge. The rapid deployment of artificial intelligence has added new complexities to the landscape, with some companies further integrating artificial intelligence into academic systems without meaningful community consultation. Some of these same companies are also beginning to license researchers’ work for use in AI models, often over their objections and without their consent. This approach mirrors other trends, like the monetization of personal data, that also prioritize commercialization over the academic community these systems are meant to serve. 

And yet, over this same period, we have made progress to create meaningful change in ways that advance community interests. Community-driven efforts continue to build real momentum—from repository-focused open access policies to the expansion of the Subscribe to Open and Diamond models for open access publishing to reforming academic incentives to better support open research. Complementing these, new efforts are underway, such as the growing commitment of universities and research funders to use and produce open research information. Actions taken this week will help to advance these broader efforts and continue to raise awareness of the importance of community control of critical systems.

The Open Access Week website features an expanded set of profiles detailing how organizations embody the theme of “Community over Commercialization” in their work, which can help inspire and catalyze conversations. It also features a multilingual sets of graphics created around this year’s theme.   

This week provides an opportunity to both come together to raise awareness about the importance of community control of knowledge sharing systems and also to take action—over the week and beyond. Please participate in the discussion online using the hashtag #OAweek, and if you’re not already joining an event this week, consider taking part in one of the many locally organized discussions below.

A Selection of Locally Organized Open Access Week Events:

Monday, October 21st

Tuesday, October 22nd

Wednesday, October 23rd

Thursday, October 24th

Friday, October 25th

Ashley Gordon
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Theme for Open Access Week 2024 Continues Call to Put “Community over Commercialization”