The UOC is launching a plan for all knowledge generated at the University to be made open

Recently the governments of both Spain and Catalonia have expressed support for the implementation of open science, a movement that seeks to make science more reproducible, more transparent, and more accessible and participatory for everyone. To contribute towards this creation and the collaborative dissemination of knowledge in society, the UOC is implementing an action plan to make all knowledge generated at the University open access.

Pastora Martínez, the UOC's Vice President for Globalization and Cooperation, explained "the idea is to make the University an open hub, projecting the knowledge we generate far and wide so that it can be enriched by external contributions". She went on to say "The UOC wants to be a truly global and social institution, a more porous and participative university, one that contributes to overcoming the global challenges identified in the UN's 2030 Agenda."

Named the Open Knowledge Action Plan, the project was presented at the UOC's 4th Seminar on Scholarly Publishing, which was held as part of International Open Access Week (22–28 October) in Barcelona on 22 October. Martínez was there to explain the core themes and processes involved in this transition towards a model that makes a greater commitment to scientific knowledge as a public good, and will also accentuate the high quality of the UOC's research and learning programmes.

The key areas for action include promoting open access in scientific publications and increasing awareness of its benefits among the scientific community. Marta Aymerich, Vice President for Strategic Planning and Research, said "this will help accelerate both research itself and collaborations between researchers".

Ernest Abadal, Professor in the University of Barcelona's Faculty of Library and Information Sciences, was also at the seminar to give details on the theoretical precedents to open science, the values connecting them, and the current political programmes (both at EU level and in certain countries) to put it into practice.

An introduction to open access micro-MOOC on Twitter

To help raise awareness about open access and to encourage people to commit to publishing in open access, the UOC is running its Micro-MOOC on open access. This free course, now in its second year, is given over Twitter and is available in both Catalan and English. Contents of the course are being tweeted each day from Monday 22 to Friday 26 October, at 10 am in Catalan (under the hashtag #OAMOOC) and at 12 noon in English (#OAMOOC18), from the Twitter account @moocmicro.

This initiative, while particularly useful for researchers and university students, is open to anyone with an interest in this area. The aim is to share the basic ideas and concepts relating to open access, explaining things in easy-to-understand language.

The University of Barcelona, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Pompeu Fabra University, University of Girona, University of Lleida, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Ramon Llull University, University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia, and Universitat Jaume I are all involved in the course, and the Catalan University Service Consortium, European University Association, and Association of European Research Libraries are also taking part.

A documentary looking at the debate about scholarly publications

Can you put a price on publishing research? What are the hidden costs of academic publishing? What are the reasons for supporting open access in scientific publications? To answer these and further questions, the UOC and the University of Barcelona (UB) have organized a free screening of Paywall. The Business of Scholarship at Barcelona's Cinemes Girona at 5 pm on Wednesday 24 October.

Afterwards there will be an open discussion between Alexandre López, a professor at the UOC's Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences, and Brian Russell, an activist and volunteer at Collaction.org, a Dutch NGO that seeks to address problems through collective action solutions, including open science.