18th BERLIN OPEN ACCESS CONFERENCE: RESETTING THE TERMS OF SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING

"After a decade of open access agreements, the focus is extending beyond execution to what scholarly publishing is expected to deliver and how to shape system-level outcomes.

The 18th Berlin Open Access Conference (B18) will convene senior leaders from research institutions, library consortia, and funding bodies alongside major publishers to address a central question: What must change now to realign scholarly publishing with the interests of the research community?

Building on years of negotiating and implementing open publishing agreements, B18 will move beyond incremental progress to focus on:

• Accountability and transparency – assessing pricing and performance against stated commitments, using shared data
• AI and publishing models – implications for cost, licensing, and control of scholarly content
• The evolution of open access agreements – clarifying the value of publishing services and aligning costs with that value
• Scalable alternatives and coordinated investment – advancing collective approaches to open publishing
• Publishing ethics, research integrity and trust – reinforcing expectations for quality and transparency across the system

The conference will combine direct engagement with publishers and closed strategic coordination among negotiators, with the aim of strengthening alignment and advancing system-level change."