[IP-OA_Forum] Panel spotlight: more of what's shaping the OASPA 2026 programme

[bernie.folan@oaspa.org]

Join us at OASPA 2026 (September 21-23, Zagreb, Croatia) where the programme will tackle today's most pressing challenges in scholarly communication with a focus on interactivity and interchange. 

Secure your place now and join representatives from over 100 organisations already registered to exchange thoughts with a global network of experts and peers - and help shape the future of open scholarship.

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Over the next few weeks we will showcase in a little more detail the sessions we have lined up. Today, we delve into two of the panels we have planned. If you missed the previous one you can find it here.

Panel: Does open access still matter in a Gen AI world?
Moderator: Sara Rouhi – American Institute of Physics (AIP) Publishing

Panellists:
Keith Webster – Carnegie Mellon University
Nikesh Gosalia – Cactus Communications
Tasha Mellins-Cohen – COUNTER

Open access was built on a simple premise: remove the paywall, and knowledge flows freely. But in a world where AI systems summarise paywalled and open content alike, where full-text visits are falling, and where the practical distinction between open and closed is eroding — is the focus on open access still the right one to organize around?

This panel asks that question head on, in a room full of people whose work depends on getting the answer right. Three perspectives examine the provocation from different angles: what AI means for libraries and research infrastructure; whether the openness we have built serves global knowledge equitably or hands a gift to extractive models that entrench existing biases; and whether we can trust what AI systems produce when provenance is obscured and attribution collapses.

What obligations should accompany large-scale machine re-use of scholarly content? What does trust look like when the lineage of ideas disappears? And what kind of openness — if any — serves researchers, readers, and the public in a world reshaped by generative AI? What are the responsibilities of each scholarly communication stakeholder, in a Gen AI context around rigor, transparency and research integrity?

The Plumbing of Progress: Why Open Infrastructure is Everyone’s Business

Moderator: Matt Buys – Datacite

Panellists:
John Chodacki – Director, University of California Curation Center (UC3)
Kathleen Gregory – Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University
Christian Kohl – PLOS
Anna Walek – OAPEN

This session unpacks how open infrastructures (e.g., repositories, identifiers, metadata services) are the "plumbing" of the academic world—the essential, often invisible systems that make sure research actually gets seen, found, shared and recorded. Publishing organisations increasingly depend on open and shared infrastructures for identifiers, preservation and discovery, making this a strategic issue for the entire publishing community.

The most important conversation about open infrastructures today is no longer simply “what tools exist?” but rather: what infrastructures do we need to treat as shared, community resources; and how do we sustainably support them without duplicating effort or fragmenting the ecosystem?

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Learn about the full programme and networking opportunities - register today. Your perspective and expertise are valued in this critical conversation. With huge thanks to our 2026 sponsors. Get in touch to secure a remaining sponsor opportunity!

Note: Following OASPA2026, the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) will host an invitation-only, co-creation workshop for publishers and journals at the same venue on September 24. Although participation will be by invitation only, you can declare your interest to join when registering for the OASPA conference.    

Bernie Folan

Communications, Engagement and Outreach Manager, OASPA

OASPA, Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association

bernie.folan@oaspa.org
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