UNESCO’s Open Access (OA) Curriculum is now online
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“Building inclusive Knowledge Societies through information and
communication” is one of the key objectives for UNESCO’s Medium-Term
Strategy. By adopting this objective, UNESCO Member States have
recognized that knowledge plays a key role in economic growth, social
development, cultural enrichment and democratic empowerment. This
decision of the Members States has influenced UNESCO‘s Open Access
program, through which the organization received a unique mandate to
work on OA policy issues; bridge knowledge pools on OA across the world
and build capacities to better understand Open Access.
Within the overall framework of the organization’s strategy on OA, the recent launch of OA curricula for Researchers and Library Schools
by UNESCO highlights its efforts for enhancing capacities to deal with
Open Access issues. The carefully designed and developed sets of OA
curricula for researchers and library and information professionals are
based on two needs assessment surveys, and several rounds of
face-to-face and online consultations with relevant stakeholders.
These curricula will soon be converted into
self-directed e-learning tools, which will enable users to self-assess
their knowledge on Open Access and take a learning pace that is
initiated and directed by the learners themselves. UNESCO also aims to
strengthen this initiative by translating the OA curricula into several
languages that will increase their reach and impact.
The complete set of five OA modules for researchers can be downloaded by clicking the following links:
Curriculum for Researchers
- Module 1: Scholarly Communications
- Module 2: Concepts of Openness and Open Access
- Module 3: Intellectual Property Rights
- Module 4: Research Evaluation Metrics
- Module 5: Sharing your Work in Open Access
UNESCO promotes Open Access (OA),
with particular emphasis on scientific information (journal articles,
conference papers and datasets of various kinds) emanating from publicly
funded research. Working with partners, UNESCO works to improve
awareness about the benefits of OA among policy makers, researchers and
knowledge managers. Through its global network of Field Offices, Institutes and Centers,
UNESCO facilitates the development and adoption of OA-enabling
policies. In addition, UNESCO engages in global OA debates and
cooperates with local, regional and global initiatives in support of OA.
Source: UNESCO WEBSITE
