October 19-25, 2026
The Cost of Knowledge
Open Access Week 2026
“The Cost of Knowledge” is the theme for this year’s International Open Access Week (October 19-25).
We create and share knowledge in order to advance human understanding and the common good. We recognize that accessing and sharing knowledge is a human right. Yet, the costs to access and share knowledge continue to increase, often dramatically. Why? Who benefits?
Changing the world is possible.
Openness can create pathways to more equitable knowledge sharing and serve as a means to address the inequities that shape societies and our response to them.
Photo Credits: Hanne Pearce (left | CC BY 4.0), Marios Zervas (right | CC BY 4.0).
#OAWeek is an invitation to collaborate.
Each year, International Open Access Week is organized around a theme that encourages connection and collaboration across the international open community.
Organizing an event?
Participating in Open Access Week can be as simple or involved as you like. It can also be a chance to let your imagination have full rein and come up with something ambitious and engaging.
Our joint call today is principled, lifesaving and urgent. Worldwide people need States, international bodies, science and medical institutions and practitioners to ensure the broadest possible sharing of scientific knowledge, and the broadest possible access to the benefits of scientific knowledge. This is key to any effective public health policy. It is essential to the combat against climate change.
Michelle Bachelet,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
A Joint Appeal for Open Science by CERN, OHCHR, UNESCO and WHO