This year, Preprints.org joins the global academic community in celebrating International Open Access Week. Building on the theme Who Owns Our Knowledge?, we hosted a webinar on October 13 titled Who Has a Voice in Open Science? to explore how we can make knowledge-sharing more equitable and impactful.
Why Open Access matters for scholarly communication
From October 20 to 26, 2025, researchers, librarians, institutions, and communities around the world will gather to reflect on what it means to share knowledge openly and equitably. This annual event is a chance to assess the progress in Open Access movement, identify the barriers that remain, and work together toward a future where knowledge belongs to everyone.
The 2025 theme, Who Owns Our Knowledge?, highlights a question at the heart of scholarly communication. Knowledge production is not just about publishing articles. It is about how knowledge is created and shared. This leads to an equally important question: How can we ensure that knowledge isn’t just created and shared, but is actively heard, discussed, and allowed to evolve through the community’s voice and collaboration?
Open Access beyond a publishing model
Open Access is about equity of voice. It ensures that every researcher, regardless of geography, institution, or funding background, has the opportunity to contribute to and benefit from knowledge.
The roots of Open Access stretch back more than 70 years. Calls for more transparent and equitable dissemination of research can be traced to the mid-20th century, but the movement gained significant momentum in the late 20th and early 21st centuries with the rise of digital publishing.
Despite decades of progress, we recognize that Open Access is only the first step. The future of Open Science lies in broader practices, including open peer review, and research reproducibility.
These illustrate why OA is not simply about making papers free to read. It’s about taking the next steps to make research heard, discussed, and constructively debated within the community.
How preprints support a more inclusive future
Preprints are one of the most effective tools to advance the goals of a truly open and equitable research landscape. At Preprints.org, all manuscripts are made freely available under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license and indexed in academic databases, such as Web of Science, Europe PMC, Crossref, Scilit, Google Scholar, PrePubMed, SHARE, and Dimensions, ensuring global visibility. This system accelerates the dissemination of research and allows scholars to share their findings immediately with the world.
The impact of preprints is particularly powerful for researchers whose voices might sometimes unheard. For early-career researchers, scholars from underrepresented regions, or those without solid financial support, preprints offer them the playing field. Every manuscript receives the same visibility.
Preprints empower the research based on the quality of ideas rather than the prestige of institutions or journals. In this way, preprints contribute directly to both knowledge being created and shared equal, and being heard, discussed and evolved through collaboration across disciplines, geographies, and career stages, making it possible for diverse perspectives to shape the future of science.
Preprints.org’s ongoing effort to amplify voices
At Preprints.org, we are dedicated to amplifying every researcher’s voice in the open science movement. As part of our commitment, we organized a webinar “Who Has a Voice in Open Science?” on October 13 ahead of Open Access Week.
The session brought together perspectives from PREreview, Rippling Ideas, ASAPbio, and the African Reproducibility Network. Together, we explored the role of preprints in shaping a more inclusive research landscape and discussed what it truly means to give every scholar a voice.
If you missed the live session, you could watch the full recording below:
We also invite you to celebrate Open Access Week with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Bluesky, and X this week. We’ll be sharing speaker highlights there, and you can continue the conversation on how preprints can help amplify every voice in open science. Together, we can ensure that knowledge is not only accessible but also representative of the diverse communities that create it.
Learn more about Preprints.org
There is a growing recognition of preprints across the scholarly publishing landscape. Influential journals and publishers are leading the way, helping to shape broader academic norms.
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Feature Image: 2025 Open Access Week Theme Graphic by International Open Access Week, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
