Accessibility Tools
Overall, Open Access is advancing well, but too often, institutional open access policies focus on journal publications, leaving out long-form publications, which are central in certain disciplines.
Therefore, the European University Association is jointly organising a webinar with the PALOMERA project (Policy Alignment of Open Access Monographs in the European Research Area) to raise awareness among university actors about Open Access books and long-form publications (including monographs, book chapters and edited collections). It will be held on 24 September 2024, from 15:00- 16.30 CEST.
This webinar will address the diversity of OA policies among universities and other research performing organisations in the European Research Area (ERA), focusing on the state of policy for Open Access books. As such, PALOMERA project partners will share results of a policy mapping research that has identified different national approaches to OA books policy. Key insights from this webinar will therefore include the added value of having a policy for OA books, which elements are most important within the scope of such a policy, what it would mean for a university to add books to its Open Access policy, and life-cycle thinking about policy development for Open Access and Open Science.
Participants will learn how and why universities and other research performing organisations are setting OA book policies and how those policies can find more alignment with other institutions and other countries on Open Access books.
Speakers:
Moderator: Vinciane Gaillard, Deputy Director for R&I, EUA
The webinar will be of interest to institutional leaders (rectors, vice-rectors and heads of administration), research department staff, research librarians, researchers, as well as representatives of other organisations.
Registrations remain open until the start of the webinar. Participation is free of charge.
Background
This is the second event in a new EUA webinar series ‘The future of scholarly communication’, which follows the 2021 webinar series on the future of scholarly publishing. The series will address the rapid technological advancements and evolving scholarly practices which are reshaping the future of scholarly communication.
The recordings of the previous webinars of the series are now available. Please note that you can access them only if you have registered for at least one of the webinars.
As detailed in the EUA Open Science Agenda 2025, the scholarly ecosystem is indeed moving at an unprecedented pace. The sheer volume of scholarly publications continues to rise exponentially, making it increasingly challenging for researchers to keep abreast of new developments in their fields. While a growing number of publications are openly accessible through various models such as diamond, green, or gold open access, a significant portion of research remains locked behind subscription walls, hindering knowledge dissemination. Moreover, scholarly communication extends beyond traditional research articles to encompass a diverse array of outputs, including books, software, and code. Efforts are being made to open the whole research process and bring it closer to society. This diversity underscores the need for innovative approaches to dissemination and access across various formats.
As universities navigate this landscape of change, they play a pivotal role in shaping the future trajectory of knowledge ownership, dissemination and academic discourse.
The PALOMERA project is funded by the European Union for two years under the Horizon Europe program: Reforming and enhancing the European R&I System (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094270).
