2021 SILS Symposium on Information for Social Good

COVID-19 Research, Open-Access Publication, and Inequity in the World of Academic Publishing

Katherine Ledson and Anna Twiddy


Open-access publishing is not a complete solution. Placing faith in it as such fails to uproot long-existing power inequalities of the open-access model.


Illustration of desktop computer with blue background.
Illustration of desktop computer with blue background.

What's happening? What are some of the immediate effects?

  • Unprecedented crisis: novel disease, changing guidance


  • Authorities such as UNESCO and others call for suspension of paywalls in the publication of COVID-19 research



  • Unprecedented access to media and members of the public



  • You can listen to Jessica Zucman-Rossi, MD, PhD, editor of the open-access hepatology journal JHEP Reports, discuss her perspective on this issue here (10:25)