The International Open Access Week organised by SPARC in partnership with the Open Access Week Advisory Committee every year, aims to connect the global academic and research communities towards open sharing of knowledge.

The theme of the Open Access Week 2023 is “Community over Commercialisation”. This theme encourages a candid conversation about the approaches to open scholarship that prioritises the best interests of the public and the academic community. It also fosters discussions relevant to the importance of community control of knowledge sharing system in the face of ever-growing  challenges in the current scholarly publishing model.

In celebration of the Open Access Week this year from 23 October 2023 to 29 October 2023, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) Libraries hosted several events including seminar, online social media campaign, and an online quiz that not only targeting the local community, but also drawing attention from the global academic community.

To reach a wider range of audience by breaking the geographical boundaries, this seminar was live streamed on Zoom, allowing participants located overseas and in different time zones to join as well. There were a total of 143 librarians, researchers, scholars, and students registered for the seminar. Out of which, over 20 participants were from overseas, including Australia, India, Japan, Myanmar, New Zealand, and Thailand, etc. It is also worth highlighting that the HKU Libraries adopted AI simultaneous translation the first time and made live caption available in different languages for Zoom attendees as part of their efforts in promoting inclusive learning.

Engaging and insightful talk on the future of science

On 26 October 2023, in the seminar “Peer Community In” is the future of science: Empowering authors and community with moving to diamond open access and community initiatives, Dr. Gilad Feldman (Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong) inspired the 20 on-site and 55 online participants with his experience and expertise on Open Science. The seminar echoed this year’s theme by bringing the community-initiated approach toward open scholarship onto the discussion table.

Opening of the seminar

The speaker discussed the striking problems with the current scholarly publishing system, including misaligned incentives, obsession with journal impact factors, closed peer-review system amongst others. The discussion continued with the solution – Open Science, ranging from planning research design, sharing materials, to open access publishing. Dr. Feldman shared a viable alternative to the current costly, non-transparent, and non-reproducible systems, namely Peer Community In (PCI, https://peercommunityin.org/), an open peer-review platform which shifts power from publishers to authors. In the past two years, his CORE team based at HKU (https://mgto.org/core-team/) submitted over 25 manuscripts to Peer Community In Registered Report, with some already published, and most already granted Stage 1 in-principle acceptance. All of these are led and co-authored by early career researchers and HKU undergraduate or Master of Science students. This compelling example led to positive responses and appreciation from attendees.

Snippet of Dr. Feldman’s presentation

The event received positive feedback and appreciation from attendees. It was encouraging to see that attendees were eager to communicate and discuss the topic after Dr. Feldman’s presentation. While the event’s success could be measured in metrics, such as attendance and feedback, it was the intangible impact that truly set it apart. It brought together individuals in the academia from diverse backgrounds, within and beyond HKU, fostering a sense of community, inspiration, and empowerment.

The video recording of the seminar and the presentation slides are publicly accessible via: https://osf.io/3tr9g/

“A concept a day gets you on your way to O.A.”

The Libraries launched a social media campaign which aims to introduce various key concepts related to Open Science during the Open Access Week. Between 23 to 27 October 2023, a social media post was released daily on the Facebook and Instagram page of the Libraries explaining a concept of Open Access. The concepts are fundamental and serves to introduce anyone without prior knowledge to the inclusive, equitable, and sustainable world of Open Science.

The posts can be viewed by visiting the HKU Libraries Facebook page or Instagram page.

Open Access Master Challenge

The Libraries have launched an online quiz during the event for participants to test their knowledge on Open Science.

The online quiz is now open to any interested individuals via:  https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3Dh9jts1ZvMvRHM

Open Access Week 2023 created an amazing opportunity for researchers, not only at HKU, but also from various backgrounds, to join force, take action, and raise awareness around the importance of community control of knowledge sharing systems, with the theme Community over Commercialisation. It created a platform for collaboration, learning, and celebration of shared passions and wisdom.

The HKU Libraries also extend their heartfelt appreciation to all the guests, attendees and colleagues who contributed to the success of the celebration programme.

Contributed by the University of Hong Kong Libraries