Open Access Week 2026

The theme of International Open Access Week, taking place from 19 to 25 October, is “The Cost of Knowledge”. It invites us to reflect on the cost of creating, sharing and preserving knowledge—including the labour involved and the associated environmental impact. On Thursday, 22 October, the seminar “Who Pays and Who Is Responsible for Open Knowledge?” will take place in the large hall of the Library’s Conference Centre.

Access to and sharing of knowledge are considered human rights, yet the related costs continue to rise. This makes it essential to discuss why these costs are increasing and whose interests the current system actually serves. These questions are also important in the Estonian context, as our open science policy is still taking shape and the choices made now will influence how fairly, openly and sustainably knowledge is created and shared in the future.

The cost of knowledge includes not only subscription and publication fees for scholarly journals, but also the often unpaid work of authors, reviewers and editors; unequal opportunities to create and share knowledge; and the disregard of the rights of small nations in data management. Attention is also drawn to the use of research outputs for training artificial intelligence without authors’ consent, the tracking of users on scholarly platforms, and the growing energy and water consumption of data centres. Overall, this year’s theme calls for making systems for creating and sharing knowledge fairer and more sustainable, so that they serve primarily the interests of researchers, communities and the public.

During Open Access Week, the University of Tartu Library will host its traditional information desk, where visitors can learn about various services supporting open science. In addition to the seminar day on 22 October, participants can also take part in other English-language online training sessions.