Last week the Initiative for Open Abstracts (I4OA) was launched: https://i4oa.org. This initiative is a collaboration between scholarly publishers, infrastructure organizations, librarians, researchers and other interested parties to advocate and promote the unrestricted availability of the abstracts of the world's scholarly publications, particularly journal articles and book chapters, in trusted repositories where they are open and machine-accessible. I4OA calls on all scholarly publishers to open the abstracts of their published works, and where possible to submit them to Crossref. 

For a discussion of why open abstracts are of value, also see the blog posts by Aaron Tay, Ludo Waltman and myself (https://medium.com/a-academic-librarians-thoughts-on-open-access/why-openly-available-abstracts-are-important-overview-of-the-current-state-of-affairs-bb7bde1ed751) and by Cameron Neylon (http://openknowledge.community/initiative-for-open-abstracts/).

40 publishers, listed on the I4OA website, have already agreed to support I4OA and to submit their abstracts to Crossref. Support for I4OA has also been expressed by 56 other stakeholders (including FORCE11): global research funders, libraries and library associations, infrastructure providers and open science organizations, demonstrating the importance and relevance of this initiative to the scholarly community.

Informational Webinar

More information on I4OA will be given in a public webinar on October 5, 2020 (16.00-17.30h CEST). You are very welcome to join this event. Registration is possible at https://tinyurl.com/i4oa-webinar.

This 90-minute event will consist of short presentations by the I4OA team and others on various aspects of open abstracts, followed by the opportunity for Q&A. The event will also include an interactive element for participants to offer their opinions on the potential benefits of and getting further support for open abstracts. 

Webinar Programme:
• Welcome (David Shotton)
• What is I4OA? (Ludo Waltman)
• What is the current availability of open abstracts? (Bianca Kramer)
• Who benefits from open abstracts? (Aaron Tay)
• Why are publishers making abstracts openly available ? (Catriona MacCallum, Helen Duce, and others)
• How can I make abstracts openly available? (Ginny Hendricks)
• How can I support I4OA? (Silvio Peroni)
• Q&A (moderation Cameron Neylon)
• Wrap-up and next steps (David Shotton)

Looking forward to seeing you at the webinar, and/or to answer any questions about this initiative.

You can also contact the initiators of I4OA at openabstracts@gmail.com