(via Dawn Hackman, San José State University)
The SJSU King Library OA25 Conference Planning Committee is pleased to announce the theme of this year’s biennial Open Access Conference, “Defend Research, Defend Open Access”. This free event will take place online Tuesday, October 21, from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM CDT.
Around the world, government funding provides critical resources to support research and scholarship. Similarly, government open access policies like those in the United States, the European Union, Mexico, and Japan have reshaped scholarly communication to ensure immediate open access to publicly funded research.
But what happens when governments turn against research? How can research and scholarly communication communities respond to censorship of academic research and to the dismantling of funding agencies and other research infrastructure? How can institutions and libraries maintain a commitment to open access in the face of challenging political and budgetary climates?
This conference aims to build on the Declaration To Defend Research Against U.S. Government Censorship and to provide researchers, librarians, publishers, research administrators, and concerned citizens a chance to share their experiences and strategies in addressing and countering government censorship in the research process. We especially invite participants from outside the United States to share their perspectives and experience in navigating the impacts of political change on the research process.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Impact of disrupted research agendas, including policy and social impacts as well as impacts on individual researchers;
- Disappearing data and its effect on teaching and/or research;
- Data rescue projects or research on the scope of disappearing data and web content;
- Preservation of open content;
- Labor issues related to Open Access, including invisible labor, power dynamics within academia, and sustainability of current practices;
- Strategies for organization and action in response to changes in the research environment;
- Case studies of Open Access initiatives;
- Minimal computing and other ways of reimagining infrastructure for scholarship; and
- Open Access in politically repressive or underfunded research environments.
We invite proposals for 20 or 40 minute sessions. Submit your proposal via our Google Form by Tuesday, July 15, at 7:00 PM CDT. If you have any questions, please contact Dawn Hackman, Health Sciences and Scholarly Communications Librarian, San José State University Library, at dawn.hackman@sjsu.edu.
More information about the meeting is available here.