Gatti (2025) Enabling equity in scholarly publishing with open infrastructures and open metadata (presentation) | Open and Engaged 2026 Conference

Abstract While the ideals of a 'free' society include the freedom for authors to write what they like and readers to read what they like - the reality is that the infrastuctures that connect those two groups exercise significant control over which works are (or can be) disseminated and which works are (or can be) discovered. Control over these infrastructures enables significant control over knowledge itself, and the processes by which scholarly books are disseminated, discovered and accessed are determined by the design and ownership of the metadata and infrastructures used in those processes. Until recently these processes have been designed around the sales of the content, controlling access to only those who have paid for it. Open access publications, which encourage broader access and dissemination, are highlighting some of the controls and restrictions implicit in existing systems. In this talk, I will discuss some of the issues of control we have been seeking to address in the design of Thoth Open Metadata - highlighting the importance of open metadata, the use of standardised PIDs and the creation of open infrastructures in enabling interoperability between systems in order to enable greater equity and control by authors and readers over the dissemination and discovery of knowledge.