EVENT: Open and Engaged Conference 2020: Inequities in Scholarly Communications

In honor of Open Access Week, the British Library is hosting its Open and Engaged Conference (#OpenEngaged2020), a free, one-day event focused on “Inequities in Scholarly Communications.”

From the program description:

Working in scholarly communications, we tend to assume that ‘Open’ is a good thing. We espouse the various benefits of openness, such as: free access to scholarly and educational resources for a wider audience, including journalists, various practitioners and professionals, and the general public; the potential to influence policy makers; allowing businesses to take advantage of the latest research; general improvements to the research process; and the offer of increased recognition for individual researchers and their institutions. Moreover, we celebrate the gradual emergence of a scholarly communications system which is more equitable for all, with fewer barriers to entry.

Though conversations around scholarly communications (and debates in digital media) have always included critical voices, those in positions of influence haven’t always paid as much attention to these as they should. Recent developments – like ‘transformative’ or ‘read and publish’ deals, the continued growth of scholar-led and community-owned infrastructure and presses, major changes in open access mandates and research evaluation policies, and the acquisition of scholarly communication services by commercial service suppliers, amongst major social and political events – have brought a number of urgent debates to the fore. Various other issues have persisted, like a lack of bibliodiversity in publishing and scholarly communications systems, funding inequalities, inclusivity (or lack of) in hiring, promotion and professional practices. These have implications for whether or not scholarly communications and ‘Open’ is ultimately beneficial for all.

Charlotte Roh, University of San Francisco, will deliver the keynote. A range of sessions will be offered, including many that will be of interest to digital humanities library folks, such as:

• Social Justice Driven Open Access Bridging The Information Divide
• Decolonising the Archive: Questions, Problems and Solutions?
• Bricks and Mortals: Approaches to Decolonizing Museums at UCL [University College London]
• Using Open Source Tools to Decolonize Map Archives: The Case of Palestine Open Maps;
• Knowledge Justice in the Digital Archive: The Exclusions of ‘Open’ / The Inclusions of ‘Closed’

Registration is free and open now. Recordings from the day will be made publicly available in November 2020.