UNESCO launches Global Open Access Portal
Top level view of Open Access to scientific information
The Global Open Access Portal(GOAP), aiming at presenting a top level view of Open Access to scientific information, was launched at a special side event organized during the UNESCO General Conference, on Tuesday 1 November 2011, at Paris Headquarters. The portal has country reports from over 148 countries with weblinks to over 2000 initiatives/projects in Member States.
Country's OA status
The Global Open Access Portal is designed to provide the necessary information for policy-makers to learn about the global OA environment and to view their country’s status, and understand where and why Open Access has been most successful.
Features of GOAP
The GOAP is a knowledge portal that has the following features:
- Country-wise distilled knowledge on the status of Open Access
- Key organizations engaged in OA in Member States
- Thematic focus areas of OA
- Important publications on OA coming from different regions of the world
- Critical assessment of major barriers to OA in each country
- Potential of OA in UNESCO Member States
- Funding and deposit mandates
- Links to OA initiatives in the world
Work in progress
Development of the Global Open Access Portal has been made possible with support received from the Governments of Columbia, Denmark, Norway, and the United States. This GOAP will be a work in progress, and shall be further improved with the support received from the community of OA practitioners.
UNESCO Open Access programme
Open Access is at the heart of UNESCO’s mandate to provide universal access to information and knowledge, and the UNESCO Open Access programme shall continue to facilitate policy dialogue in Member States, share knowledge and best practices in the field of Open Access, and build and share local capacities through North-South and South-South co-operation to build knowledge societies for sustainable development.
