Launch of the Global Alliance of Open Access Scholarly Communication Platforms to democratize knowledge

"In Inclusive Knowledge Societies, people have ready access to information and communications resources, in languages and formats that suit them, and possess the skills to interpret and make use of them. Within this framework, promoting access to scientific scholarship (in the broadest sense) has remained a central challenge to most Member States. UNESCO, with its partners, continues to pursue this objective through its programmes on Open Science and Open Access as well as in partnership with other key actors .

At a session organized by UNESCO on 8th April at the WSIS Forum 2019 in Geneva,  coordinators of six platforms – AmeliCA(link is external), AJOL(link is external), Érudit(link is external), J-STAGE(link is external), OpenEdition(link is external), and SciELO(link is external) Network agreed to join forces to democratize scientific knowledge following a multicultural, multi-thematic and multi-lingual approach. The Global Alliance of Open Access Scholarly Communication Platforms (GLOALL) was launched with a recognition of the principle that scientific and scholarly knowledge is a global public good essential for the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The session directly addressed WSIS action line C3 on Access to Information and Knowledge and action line C7 on E-Science.

In addition to fostering democratization of knowledge generated in ALL places, subjects and languages, the GLOALL carries a vision to promote the development of multilingual scholarly communication standards, products and services. The alliance seeks to enhance operational and subject interoperability in order to strengthen engagement with research worldwide...."