The 16th Berlin Open Access Conference, hosted by the Max Planck Society and organized by the OA2020 Initiative, is set to take place this year with the theme 'Together for Transformation'. This conference marks the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, and aims to bring together national-level delegations from 38 countries to discuss and refine approaches to achieving open access to information in the service of science and society.
Transformative agreements (TAs), which aim to dismantle deficiencies and inequities of the subscription-based system in scholarly publishing, will be a particular focus of the conference. TAs have already been negotiated in countries such as Peru, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Australia, and China, demonstrating their viability and scalability. As the first movers integrate TAs into their national open access strategies and near their goals of open access to 100% of their research outputs, the global research community can swiftly forge ahead together.
The conference will assess the performance of scholarly publishers in meeting the objectives and expectations set out by the research community engaged in transformative open access negotiations. Scientists, scholars, senior library, higher education, funder, and government leaders from 38 countries will formulate collective next steps to shape an open scholarly publishing paradigm that is transparent, inclusive, sustainable, and financially equitable on a global scale.
The outcomes of the conference will be shared with the broader research community on the B16 webpage. The conference provides an opportunity for the research community to come together and work towards a more open and equitable information environment in the service of science and society.
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