Abby Tabor
International Open Access Week starts next Monday! Get a feel for some of the major issues related to the OA movement in this series of short videos from MyScienceWork. Some are economic, others concern the efficiency of research. In this week’s interview, Indrajit Banerjee, Director of the Knowledge Societies Division of UNESCO, focuses on development and how UNESCO works on bringing OA to countries all over the world.
Part of UNESCO’s mission is to promote the free flow of ideas by word and by image. But, as Indrajit Banerjee says, you can’t have a free flow of ideas if people don’t have access. And there’s a lot at stake, he adds in this interview from Open Access Week 2012 in Paris, particularly for developing countries: they need scientific information, critically, but are blocked by the prohibitive cost of journals. Dr. Banerjee explains the first, concrete steps taken by UNESCO to help spread the benefits of open access around the world.
Sign up now to learn more about the stakes of OA, next week at Open Access Week 2013 in Paris, or participate live via the hashtag #OAW13.
More in this series of [Open Access Interviews]:
Curt Rice: Radically reform the communication of scientific results
Bernard Rentier: Researchers have no interest in limiting their readers
Bart van Tiggelen: The more papers are accessible, the more they will be cited
Odile Hologne: Institutional archives must be useful to researchers
Nathalie Duchange: The scientific community needs OA to build on the work of others
Find out more:
UNESCO and Open Access, presentation slides from Open Access Week 2012
All speaker presentations from Open Access Week 2012 in Paris
Storify of the second evening, at UNESCO: "Measuring the Impact of Open Access, at UNESCO for Open Access Week"
Storify of the first evening, at the University Pierre and Marie Curie (in French): "#OAWeek2012 A la découverte de l’Open Access à l’UPMC pour l’Open Access Week"
Related articles on MyScienceWork:
Our full collection of articles related to open access
What role do scientific publishers play in the transition to Open Access?
The open access policy of the University of Liège is multiplying
100% Open Access: Above all, a need for cohesion
Open Access + Social Media = Competitive Advantage
