Open Access: Promises and Reality

Abstract

While Open Access (OA) is not a new concept, it has started aggressively since the last decade. Particularly, the OA movement has gained much momentum over the past several years where funders, institutions, publishers, and researchers became increasingly involved. Despite the expectations that OA is going to dramatically transform the landscape of research and the ecosystem of scholarly communication, concerns about the cost, quality, and impact of OA publishing remain. This presentation will discuss the promises and reality of OA from a holistic perspective. It will touch on the many facets of OA, including its concept and elements, history and development, as well as its connection to important topics like Open Education Resources (OER), open data, and reproducible research. The speakers will also share the University of Hong Kong Libraries’ experiences and plans for engaging OA with the University’s research community.