Open Access ensures free availability of scientific information and helps to preserve and share our collective knowledge and cultural heritage. During the global event International Open Access Week, the Communication and Information Centre (kiz) is hosting a series of lunchtime online lectures on topics related to Open Access and Artificial Intelligence. The lectures will take place via Zoom from 20 to 24 October, and participation is free of charge.
"Open Access makes research more visible and helps prevent the growing monopolization of knowledge by a few corporations," says Uli Hahn, Deputy Head of the Information Media Department at the Communication and Information Centre (kiz). “With presentations on new trends, current challenges, and practical tips, kiz aims to raise awareness of Open Access and make it easier to use,” explains Dr. Jonas Mirbeth. Like Hahn, he serves as the Open Access Officer at Ulm University and coordinated the programme for the campaign week.
The five lectures provide insights into the current state of Open Access and offer practical guidance — for example, on the reimbursement of article processing charges or the role of transformative agreements. Commercial publishers still play a major part in this area, yet new structures and formats for independent scholarly publishing are also emerging. The concept of Diamond Open Access refers to promising community-supported funding models designed to overcome publishers’ pricing power and make publicly funded research freely available to the public.
Other key topics currently engaging the research community include Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. On the one hand, these technologies open up unprecedented opportunities to analyse vast volumes of publications for patterns and correlations using computational methods. On the other hand, researchers are concerned that their Open Access publications might be used to train large language models, potentially infringing their intellectual property. “The dilemma,” Mirbeth points out, “is that when exclusive usage rights are transferred to a publisher, the publisher alone often retains the right to use the content for training its own language models. That’s why we advocate for Open Access — it’s the only way to ensure that scientific knowledge and discoveries are truly accessible to everyone.”
Further information:
Uli Hahn (email: uli.hahn(at)uni-ulm.de) and Dr Jonas Mirbeth (email: jonas.mirbeth(at)uni-ulm.de), Open Access Officer at Ulm University
You can find the programme here! Via this website you will also receive the access link for the Zoom transmission
Text: Andrea Weber-Tuckermann
Translation: DeepL - optimized by ChatGPT