The 2nd Global Summit on Diamond Open Access took place a couple of weeks ago in Cape Town, South Africa. The event’s overarching theme was “Centering social justice in scholarly communication to advance research as a public good.”
The summit was composed of three consecutive conferences:
- DKIS Conference on Advancing Social Justice Through Curriculum Alignment
- Advancing Social Justice Through Curriculum Realignment: Centering Scholarly Communication in LIS Curricula
- Open Science in the South 2024
- With its third edition of the conference exploring “African scientific publishing we want” focused on the theme of African scientific publishing.
- Conference on Diamond Open Access
- building on the first iteration of the conference hosted by Redalyc/AmeliCA in Mexico, in October 2023.
Key themes that were discussed throughout the three conferences included
- the importance of equitable access to scholarly communication, particularly for marginalized research communities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia,
- the need to eliminate biases and financial barriers in academic publishing, and
- aligning the curriculum through education and capacity building to foster inclusive and equitable Open Access paradigms, workflows, and strategies.
You can watch the session recordings provided by the UCT Libraries office:
Watch the session recordings on Youtube
The presentations from the Diamond OA Conference are available at the event page: https://doasummit.uct.ac.za/resources/presentations/
The inaugural summit held in Toluca, Mexico, in October 2023 provided the forum for discussions dedicated to promoting and supporting Diamond Open Access initiatives worldwide, coordinated and directed by scholarly stakeholders and representatives from the hosting regions and institutions represented by the respective organising committees. That first summit was co-organised by Redalyc, the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEMex), AmeliCA, UNESCO, CLACSO and the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access.
The main outcome of the first Global Diamond Open Access summit in Mexico was the Manifesto on Science as a Public Good which explained the history behind the need for a redefined type of Open Access, clearly stating its noncommercial model for implemented workflows, ensuring ownership of the infrastructure processes, decision-making and distribution to the scientific community.
In an inclusive and consultative process coordinated by the organising team around the organisers presented to the participants of the second summit in Cape Town a draft text for the agreed upos a result
Toluca-Cape Town Declaration: The summit culminated in the drafting of the Toluca-Cape Town Declaration, which centers social justice within the Diamond OA movement and provides a roadmap linking good practices globally.
Participation:
The summit attracted a diverse group of attendees, including journal editors, researchers, policymakers, and open access advocates from various regions, reflecting a commitment to inclusivity and the bridging of the North-South divide in scholarly communication.