We warmly invite you to the twelth event in the lecture series Open Divide – Critical Studies on Open Access, taking place on March 25, 2026, at 5:00 PM (CET)
We look forward to the lecture:
🎤 “Who owns scholarly publishing?” by Vincent Larivière
👉 Abstract:
Corporate control of scholarly publishing has been a heated topic over the last two decades. This talk will revisit empirical evidence on corporate control of scholarly publishing, using both restrictive and inclusive data sources, and will compare open access and closed venues. It will also discuss issues surrounding the prestige of journals and platforms, with an emphasis on country and disciplinary variation. The talk will conclude with a discussion on the need for collective infrastructures for scholarly publishing and research evaluation.
👉 About the presenter: Vincent Larivière holds the UNESCO Chair in Open Science, is a professor at the École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information (School of Library and Information Science) at the University of Montréal, a full member of CIRST, scientific director of the Érudit journal platform, and deputy scientific director of the Observatoire des sciences et des technologies (Observatory of Science and Technology). His research focuses on the characteristics of research systems in Quebec, Canada and around the world, as well as the transformation of the production and dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge in the digital world. His numerous publications include titles such as Measuring Research: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Equity for Women in Science (Harvard University Press, 2023).
We warmly invite you to the tenth event in the lecture series Open Divide – Critical Studies on Open Access, taking place on February 25, 2026, at 5:00 PM (CET)
👉 Abstract: Although transparency in science is widely encouraged as a strategy for speeding innovation, promoting reproducibility, and advancing public trust, the notion of transparency remains highly ambiguous. This talk will clarify the concept of transparency and discuss major criticisms of its feasibility and effectiveness. It will highlight different notions of transparency, their strengths and weaknesses, and potential avenues for moving forward to promote responsible forms of transparency in science.
👉 About the presenter:
Kevin Elliott is Red Cedar Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University, with joint appointments in Lyman Briggs College, the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, and the Department of Philosophy. His scholarship focuses on responsibly addressing the roles that ethical and social values play in scientific research, especially in policy-relevant areas of environmental research. He has explored the influences of financial conflicts of interest in research, ethical issues that arise in science communication and open science, and collaborative authorship practices in science teams. His books include A Tapestry of Values: An Introduction to Values in Science (Oxford University Press, 2017), Values in Science (Cambridge University Press, 2022), and the co-edited volume The Routledge Handbook of Values and Science (Routledge, 2026).
We are pleased to announce that all eight talks from the 2025 edition of the series Open Divide – Critical Studies on Open Access are now available online – with more to follow in 2026.
We (Joachim Schöpfel, Niels-Oliver Walkowski, and myself, Ulrich Herb) would be delighted if you shared the recordings within your networks. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or feedback.
We warmly invite you to the ninth event in the lecture series Open Divide – Critical Studies on Open Access, taking place on January 28, 2026, 5 pm CET. We are delighted to welcome Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri and Guillaume Silhol and look forward to their lecture, “Legitimizations and subversions of the Open: for an analysis of openwashing in scientific publishing”. In their talk, they explore openwashing as a concept to analyse the gap between Open Access rhetoric and actual publishing practices in science.
👉Abstract Based on a critical state of the art on deviant uses of Open Access in scientific publishing, this contribution establishes openwashing as an analytical category. Examining the trajectory of the term between hacktivist culture and rhetoric uses of Open Access, the benefits and limits of analogies, we conceive openwashing as a stenographic concept that sheds light on different phenomena: decoupling between openness policies and organizational practices in scientific publishing, ordinary discourse of denunciation of such dissociations, and low-key deviances in the uses of Open Access.
👉 About Guillaume Silhol
Guillaume Silhol is a postdoctoral researcher working in the ANR project ROR2, affiliated with the research unit in communication and information sciences ELICO (EA 4147) at the University Claude Bernard of Lyon-1. His research topics focus on governance and controversies over the production of knowledge and expertise, currently on Open Science policies and publishing practices.
👉 About Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri
Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri is Full Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and a member of the Elico research team. Drawing on the theoretical framework of the political economy of science, her research examines how scholarly communication has evolved towards more open and collaborative models. Her main research interests address scientific knowledge production, circulation, assessment and legitimation She is or has been involved in national and international research projects funded by ANR, UFA, CHIST ERA and Sloan Foundation. She is the coordinator of ROR² research project.
We warmly invite you to the eighth event in the lecture series Open Divide – Critical Studies on Open Access, taking place on December 17, 2025 at 5:00 pm CET. We are delighted to welcome Zakayo Kjellström and look forward to his lecture, “Beyond Institutional Boundaries: Shadow Libraries as Commons and the Future of Knowledge Preservation”. In this talk, he explores peer preservation practices and the role of shadow libraries in reimagining the future of scholarly communication.
👉Abstract Zakayo’s lecture draws upon findings from his PhD project, which aimed at understanding, mapping and analysing shadow library websites. During the lecture, an exploration of the ecosystem of shadow libraries is given. The talk will provide a brief overview of major platforms, including LibGen, Sci-Hub, Anna’s Archive, Z-library, AAAARG, UBU, and MOTW, to provide a basis for understanding the constituent parts of the shadow library community. Using the “Commons” as a primary theoretical lens, the presentation analyses how these platforms operate to create and sustain novel digital commons. The presentation’s primary purpose is to explore how dissemination and preservation function as the two core, inseparable activities within the shadow library. The lecture concludes by examining two specific case studies: Z-library and Anna’s Archive. These two cases illustrate how shadow libraries are not only symptoms of a broken system, but innovative platforms for exploring new ways to organise, disseminate and preserve digital text.
👉 About Zakayo Kjellström
Zakayo Kjellström is currently a Research Officer at the Swedish Agency for the Media. He has a PhD in Media Studies and has previously worked extensively on academic piracy. In his current role, he leads a project that aims to understand how children and young people relate to, strategise and cope with digital risks.
In the seventh lecture of the Open Divide Series, Samuel Moorewill present “Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons”. In his talk on November 26, 2025, at 5:00 PM CET, Samuel Moore will discuss key ideas from his new book Publishing Beyond the Market (University of Michigan Press). He argues that the movement for open access should shift its focus from merely ensuring the free accessibility of research outputs to asking who actually controls the infrastructures and publications that shape scholarly communication.
👉Abstract This talk will cover material from Dr Moore’s new book Publishing Beyond the Market (University of Michigan Press). In the book, Dr Moore argues that the move to open access should focus less on the free accessibility of research outputs and more on who controls the publications and infrastructures for scholarly communication. By deploying theoretical literature on science and technology studies, care ethics, and the commons, the book critically interrogates open access and re-imagines a more ethical future for researcher-led publishing. A case study of Plan S—the multi-funder European policy for OA publishing—explores its tendency to rehearse all the failures of commercialisation. Through critical engagement with the open access landscape, the book reveals the shortcomings of market-centric and policy-based approaches to open access book and journal publishing, particularly their tendency to reinforce conservatism, commercialism, and private control of publishing. The talk will alsoexplore the importance of collectivity and democratic governance within the transition to open access publishing, suggesting that developing a commons-based, scholar-led publishing landscape through a series of presses that are each managed by working academics could offer a productive counterpoint to marketised systems of open access and subscription publishing.
👉 About Samuel Moore
Dr. Samuel A. Moore is the Scholarly Communication Specialist at Cambridge University Library and Principal Investigator of Materialising Open Research Practices in the Humanities and Social Sciences (funded by Wellcome Trust, AHRC and the Research England Development Fund). He is also an Affiliated Lecturer at Cambridge Digital Humanities and a College Research Associate at King’s College Cambridge.
Dr. Moore’s research sits within the digital humanities and focuses on topics relating to academic publishing, research practices in the humanities and social sciences, and critical issues relating to research communication. He has a Ph.D in Digital Humanities from King’s College London and is also one of the organisers of the Radical Open Access Collective.
In the sixth lecture of the Open Divide Series, Joachim Schöpfel, Hélène Prost, and Behrooz Rasuliwill present “The Global South’s Role in Shaping the Open Science Paradigm— an analysis of the Global South’s contribution to the open science movement and the impact of open repositories and publishing platforms”. Their talk on October 22, 2025, at 5:00 PM CEST reveals how unequal structures, fragmented infrastructures, and regional dynamics continue to shape access to knowledge, while also highlighting emerging opportunities for a more inclusive and equitable global knowledge ecosystem.
👉Abstract This study evaluates the state of Open Access (OA) scholarly publishing in Global South countries as of March 2025. It analyzes data from major sources including Scopus, BASE, DOAJ, OpenDOAR, ROARMAP, and re3data, comparing current trends with 2017 benchmarks.
(1) Key findings:
Underrepresentation & Concentration: Global South countries contribute 27% of Scopus-indexed publications, but only 8–11% of open access documents in BASE. The OA ecosystem is highly concentrated in a few countries—mainly Brazil, Indonesia, India, Turkey, China, and Iran.
Open Access Journals (Gold Road): 41% of OA journals are from the Global South. However, 9 countries account for 82% of this output, with Indonesia and Brazil leading. Diamond OA models (free of APCs) dominate in Brazil and Turkey.
Repositories (Green Road): Global South hosts 27% of OA repositories. Five countries account for over 50% of them. Institutional OA policies are mostly from Turkish institutions.
Research Data Repositories: Only 9% of such repositories are based in Global South countries, with China and India responsible for nearly half.
(2) Growth since 2017:
OA Journals: +139% (3,685 → 8,825)
Repositories: +105% (795 → 1,628)
Data Repositories: +168% (113 → 303)
Growth is significant but unequally distributed. The study identifies regional and income disparities: Latin America/Caribbean and East Asia/Pacific are leading regions. Upper middle-income countries dominate OA production, while low-income countries remain largely absent.
(3) Challenges & opportunities:
The Global South’s OA landscape is marked by fragmentation and geographical inequality. Despite promising growth in select countries, most Global South nations remain marginalized. Expanded support, infrastructure, and inclusive OA policies are needed to close the gap and foster broader global participation.
Joachim Schöpfel is an Associate Professor Emeritus in Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Lille and a consultant in scientific and technical information for Ourouk (Paris) and scidecode (Berlin). He is a member of the GERiiCO research laboratory. Holding a PhD in psychology from the University of Hamburg, he worked at the CNRS Institute of Scientific and Technical Information (1991–2008), leading the library, document supply, and e-publishing services. In 2008, he joined the University of Lille, where he directed the first year of the Information-Document Master’s program (2008–2024), led the information sciences department (2009–2012), and headed the Atelier National de Reproduction des Thèses (ANRT) (2012–2017). He has participated in Erasmus exchanges in Slovenia and Germany and lectured in Scientific Data Management at Sorbonne and Montpellier. Author of over 300 publications, his research focuses on scientific information, open science, data, and research information management. He serves on the boards of euroCRIS, ADBS, and Savoir Apprendre (Exploradôme).
Hélène Prost is a retired librarian at the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information (CNRS) and an associate member of the GERiiCO research laboratory (University of Lille). She is interested in the empirical sciences of information and documentation and statistical data analysis. She participates in research projects on collection evaluation, usage analysis, grey literature, research data management and open access, and is the author of several publications.
Behrooz Rasuli holds a PhD in Information Science, and he is an Assistant Professor and Visibility and Open Science Consultant at the Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IranDoc). His scholarly work focuses on Open Science, specializing in Scholarly Communication, Open Access, and Research Evaluation and Impact.
We are delighted to welcome Arend Küster as the fifth speaker in our Open Divide series. OnSeptember 24, 2025, at 5 pm CEST, he will discuss his reflections on Open Access, drawing on a wide range of publishing experiences he has gained throughout his career.
👉Abstract This talk will look into the specific challenges smaller publishers face when they need to achieve scale and global reach to remain competitive. With a growing global market for research papers, everyone will have to target new markets and adapt their operations to survive in an increasingly technological and competitive environment. The talk will be looking at the rapid rise of global articles, where they come from and how publishers today will need to react to attract and source articles from an increasingly global research pool. Having worked with, built and launched Open Access publishers in unusual places, whether in Qatar or in Australia, this talk will share some key lessons learned and what that means for smaller operations and publishings portfolios. Since Arend Küster changed his position and rejoined Springer Nature as the Country Manager for India since accepting the talk, he will speak in a personal capacity.
👉 About Arend Arend Küster has been working in the publishing industry for over 30 years as an international senior executive across different geographic locations. He has deep experience in STM business strategy, sales and marketing, and academic & professional journal development. Arend’s background is entirely in publishing, where he started with an Ausbildung (Vocational Training) at Herder Verlag in Freiburg, worked as a Sales Representative for Rowohlt Verlag, a Sales Manager at Chadwyck-Healey and later Publisher German Literature and Medieval History, at Bertelsmann wissen.de and heading the European operations for Publishers Communication Group (PCG) before joining Bloomsbury Publishing. After working in Doha as Executive Director for Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation where he set up an Open Access Publisher from scratch, Arend joined Springer Nature in 2018 as Director Open Research, Greater China and transferred to Berlin in 2020 as Director Academic Affairs. He left that role at the end of 2023 to lead CSIRO Publishing in Melbourne, Australia. In May 2025, he rejoined Springer Nature as Country Manager India and is now based in Pune, India. Arend is passionate about developing sustainable and innovative publishing solutions and contributing to the global transition to Open Research.
We are very pleased to welcome Mikael Laakso as the fourth speaker in our Open Divide series. On July 23, 2025, at 5 p.m. CEST, he will address the long-term preservation of open-access publications—highlighting risks, recent developments, and strategies for safeguarding both journals and books in the evolving scholarly communication landscape.
👉Abstract In this talk I focus on long-term preservation of open-access publications, discussing challenges and best practices both resulting from insights of research I have been involved in myself as well as that produced by others. The diverse, distributed, and democratic nature of open access publishing is a richness but also puts pressure on existing infrastructures to comprehensively capture and preserve content before it is too late.
It has been about five years since we published the initial results of a paper titled “Open is not forever: A study of vanished open access journals” that highlighted the urgent need to improve the circumstances for long-term preservations of in particular open access journals. Important steps by different actors have been taken since then but there is still a substantial amount of published materials that are at risk of becoming unavailable unless continued efforts are made to make preservation options as accessible as possible and encourage journals to sign up to them.
For open access books the situation is much harder to gauge with certainty due to the different nature of metadata on books and their preservation information, but a recent study I conducted titled “Open access books through open data sources: Assessing prevalence, providers, and preservation” sheds light on some of the main challenges that would need to be addressed in order to bring more resilience and long-term preservation practices into the space for open access books.
👉 About Mikael Mikael Laakso is an Associate Professor in Information Studies at Tampere University, Finland. His research interests relate to scholarly information and communication very broadly, where one of the consistent themes has been research related open access publishing and open science practices. Having conducted research in this space for over 15 years, Mikael is experienced in a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to apply to create new knowledge within the space of scholarly information, ranging from policy/document analysis, bibliometrics & web metrics, surveys, interviews and beyond.
We are delighted to welcome Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe as the third speaker in our Open Divide series. On June 25, 2025, 5 p.m. CEST, she will critically examine the long-term sustainability of both open and closed access publishing models, focusing on their financial and scholarly implications.
👉Abstract The debate over open access versus closed access publishing often rightly centers on issues of affordability, accessibility, and equity—but what about long-term sustainability? This talk examines the financial and scholarly implications of open and closed access publishing, including considerations of publishing infrastructure, funding models, and the research ecosystem. By analyzing the costs and benefits for authors, publishers, and libraries, one can consider whether open access offers a more viable path forward for scholarly communication or if closed access remains essential for financial stability. Attendees will gain a more nuanced understanding of the sustainability challenges and opportunities within both publishing paradigms.
👉 About Lisa Professor & Coordinator for Research Professional Development, University Library, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.