Panelists discuss Open Access Publishing in the Global South for OASPA Webinar - OASPA

"Xin Bi (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University/DOAJ), Ina Smith (Academy of Science of South Africa), and Abel Packer (SciELO) recently joined OASPA for a webinar to discuss Open Access Publishing in the Global South. Lars Bjørnshauge (DOAJ) chaired the discussion. The Copyright Clearance Center hosted the webinar. Leyla Williams, Events and Communications Coordinator at OASPA, reflects on the discussion.

  On Thursday, December 8th, 2016, OASPA was pleased to host a timely and wide-ranging discussion on the current state of open access publishing in different parts of the Global South. Xin Bi, University Librarian at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and Editor and China Ambassador of the Directory for Open Access Journals (DOAJ) in China, opened the webinar by describing recent developments in open access publishing in China. In recent years, he explained, the Chinese central government has encouraged innovation strategies for economic and social development, which has involved a large increase in investment in Research and Development. Such strategies have included a focus on people being able to access and share research, and commitments to open access have expanded since 2014, when the China National Science Fund Committee and Chinese Academy of Science published their mandates for open access."