This October 20 – 26 is International Open Access Week 2025, organized by SPARC in partnership with the Open Access Week Advisory Committee. PKP takes the time to answer the theme question, “Who Owns Our Knowledge?” and invites communities to join in.
This year’s theme asks a pointed question about the present moment and how, in a time of disruption, communities can reassert control over the knowledge they produce (OA Week homepage).
PKP Considers the Question of how Communities can Reassert Control over their Knowledge Production
In a time of growing concern about sovereignty and control of scholarly infrastructure — especially in politically unstable contexts — the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) offers a different path. We provide a distributed, quality open-source alternative that keeps ownership and control in the hands of the academic community.
We embrace the archipelago: a network of autonomous yet connected communities, united by shared values and a commitment to knowledge as a global public good.
At PKP, we believe scholars and communities should control how their knowledge is created, shared, and preserved. That’s why we develop free, open-source software — like Open Journal Systems (OJS)— that empowers thousands of journals worldwide to publish independently and openly.
This Open Access Week, we’re celebrating the people who make this possible: our global community of contributors. Together, we’re reclaiming scholarly publishing for the public good — through open tools, shared expertise, and collective action.
How Community Contributions Shape the Future of PKP
As a free and open-source (FOSS) initiative, PKP thrives through the collaboration and commitment of a diverse global community. Every contribution — whether technical, linguistic, educational, or financial — strengthens our shared infrastructure for open publishing.
This week, we’re highlighting a few of the ways our community sustains and expands this collective effort. From writing code and documentation to translating resources and funding development, your involvement helps ensure that open publishing remains open to all.
We invite you to join us in supporting community-led publishing for the public good.
Your participation — of any kind — helps keep knowledge creation and sharing in the hands of those who produce it.
Code Contributions: Expanding What’s Possible
Community developers around the world enhance our software — Open Journal Systems (OJS), Open Monograph Press (OMP), and Open Preprint Systems (OPS) — by introducing new features, improving interoperability, and extending functionality through plugins.
This OA Week, we’re spotlighting recent work from the CRAFT-OA (Creating a Robust and Accessible Federated Technology for Open Access) project, whose OJS Diamond OA Plugins expand support for diamond open access workflows. These contributions demonstrate what’s possible when open infrastructure meets open collaboration.
…many high-quality Diamond journals remain underrecognised [sic] within the global research community… The objective of the OJS Diamond Plugins is twofold: to increase the visibility of Diamond OA journals and to simplify editorial workflows, enabling editors to focus on content curation rather than administrative burden. The five plugins developed under CRAFT-OA are designed to work together to address these goals in a modular and reusable way.
— Martina Dvořáková and Radek Gomola, Masaryk University Press, Czechia (from their Pubmet 2025 extended abstract for their presentation on “Plugging into quality: Boosting Diamond OA Journals with OJS Plugins“)
✨ Check out the CRAFT-OA OJS Diamond Plugins
Documentation: Building Collective Knowledge
Not only is PKP software free and open source, underpinning open access, but we make our resources freely available so that PKP infrastructure users are empowered to use the software. One such example is PKP’s Documentation Hub, which offers user guides, developer documentation, and publishing resources for all our software. Thanks to countless community contributions, PKP Docs Hub remains current, practical, and comprehensive.
The systems that PKP produces and supports are essential for disintermediating scholarly publishing while still maintaining the high standards that accompany the ideal of peer review. Participating in the PKP Documentation Interest Group is my way of contributing to that important mission, and I’m happy to do what I can to support the global community.
— Amanda French, Research Organization Registry (ROR), Crossref
Recently, we launched the Learning Resources Interest Group to collaboratively develop the next generation of PKP learning materials — beyond written documentation. Together, we’re creating videos, quick guides, infographics, and slide decks that meet users where they are.
🔔 Stay tuned for opportunities to join a Working Group and help shape these new learning tools!
Translations: Supporting a Truly Global Community
As a global open-source project, PKP is committed to making our software and learning materials accessible in multiple languages. Our multilingual community plays a vital role — translating new software releases, documentation, and training materials so that open publishing is truly global.
In just one example, thanks in large apart to translation contributors, OJS is currently used by over 55,000 journals in over 150 countries, with journals publishing almost 9 million articles in more than 60 languages (based on 2024 stats).
Every translation is a seed of knowledge autonomy. When communities adapt our software into their own languages, they take ownership of a piece of the project. Under the stewardship of motivated scholars, a software translation can grow into new networks of open publishing that is owned, sustained, and defined by contributors and their collaborators in the regions they serve.
— Emma Uhl, PKP Documentation and Multilingualism Specialist
✨ Learn more and get involved in PKP translations
Financial contributions sustain and grow essential work towards equitable future for scholarly publishing
Open infrastructure depends on open participation — and that includes financial and in-kind support from our communities.
PKP’s sustainability model combines Simon Fraser University’s administrative support, PKP Publishing Services revenue, and distributed contributions from global partners and financial contributors who share our mission. These include:
- Development Partners: Institutions that provide significant financial contributions and in-kind support that help set priorities for new features in PKP software through direct involvement in our governance structure.
- Financial Contributors: Libraries and organizations that fund open access initiatives and open infrastructure.
- Research Funders: Agencies and partners supporting PKP’s research and educational projects to advance equitable scholarly communication.
To learn more about PKP’s finances and partnerships, visit our Annual Reports.
✨ Learn how your organization can support PKP
Join us to give back, care for the community, and stay engaged
Open infrastructure isn’t something we own — it’s something we care for together. As the landscape of scholarly communication continues to evolve, PKP remains committed to a future where knowledge creation and sharing are governed by the academic community itself.
At PKP, we believe that knowledge can only be a public good if everyone can participate. We extend scholarly publishing by creating spaces that are welcoming for all and that honour people’s right to know through diverse forms of research and scholarship.
This Open Access Week, we invite you to join us in that work.
Contribute your skills, your knowledge, or your support — and help build a publishing ecosystem where open truly means open for everyone.
✨ Multiple ways to get involved
Please consider sharing these messages with your networks, tell your stories, and support the OA Week theme “Who owns our knowledge”. Use the hashtag #OAWeek and tag PKP!
Don’t forget to sign up to PKP’s Community Newsletter, Archipelago, to get the latest news!
