Celebrating International Open Access Week @ HKBU Library
20-26 October 2025
International Open Access Week is a yearly event that promotes Open Access (OA) and encourages the academic and research community to learn more about it, fostering participation and sharing of knowledge.
SPARC defines Open Access as:
“the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. Open access ensures that anyone can access and use these results – to turn ideas into industries and breakthroughs into better lives.”
Who Owns Our Knowledge?
This year’s International Open Access Week invites critical reflection on ownership and control of knowledge in an era of rapid technological and social change. The theme, Who Owns Our Knowledge? asks us not only who is given access to education and research but, more fundamentally, how knowledge is created and shared, who participates, and whose voices are valued in these processes. Learn more about this year’s theme.
Open Access Week 2025 offers an opportunity to promote practices that advance equitable access to research and scholarship; disseminating research more widely around the globe. In the spirit of Who Owns Our Knowledge?, HKBU Library celebrates open access initiatives that empower HKBU’s researchers and students as well as broader society. These initiatives range from making scholarly research freely available through our own local platforms, such as HKBU Scholars (our institutional repository) to increasing researchers’ ability to publish open access through publishing agreements.
Publishing Agreements and Real-Time Insights
Open Access in Action: Real-Time Impact and Publishing Agreements
In alignment with Open Access Week 2025’s theme “Who Owns Our Knowledge?”, HKBU actively participates in the global campaign by promoting global access to scholarly resources.
Library Support for Extending HKBU Knowledge
Open Access is attained through a spectrum of activities, ranging from local initiatives, to pursuing a transformation in scholarly publishing through publishing agreements that facilitate OA for HKBU researchers. Here we highlight insights into the impact of OA, publication trends, and publisher agreements negotiated by the Library that waive article processing charges (APCs) for eligible HKBU authors.
Open Access Impact: Real-Time Insights
Discover how Open Access is shaping research at HKBU through our new interactive dashboard. Explore publication trends over the past decade, track the number of articles made OA via transformative agreements and individual APC, and compare average citation rates and FWCI between OA and non-OA outputs. See how openness drives visibility, engagement, and scholarly reach.
Open Access Publishing Agreements: Publish OA with APCs waived
HKBU Library actively secures Open Access publishing agreements, also known as transformative agreements, to support our researchers. These agreements cover APCs for eligible HKBU authors, removing financial barriers to publishing. At the same time, they preserve or enhance access to existing journal subscriptions, providing access to relevant resources. This model that expands visibility while sustaining access to scholarly research. See which publishers we have reached agreements with, where APCs are waived.
HKBU Scholars
HKBU Scholars – Showcase Your Research. Share it Globally.
Explore researchers, scholarship, and more, to discover contributions to HKBU’s research excellence.
HKBU Scholars is a portal that, among other things, makes HKBU research papers and books freely available to the world using green Open Access. Many scholarly publishers offer the option to share work in this way; however, there are usually restrictions around the version and timing of the publication of the respective paper.
Consider sharing your paper with the world using green OA! The Library can help – please contact our Digital Initiatives and Research Cluster to learn more about your options.
From HKBU to the World – Extending our Knowledge and Collections
In alignment with Open Access Week 2025’s theme “Who Owns Our Knowledge?”, HKBU actively participates in the global campaign by promoting community-drivenglobal access to scholarly resources.
Online Thematic Catalogue of Lully Keyboard Arrangements
Digital Projects
HKBU Library leverages state-of-the-art digital technologies in multiple innovative projects, to not only preserve and extend the longevity of vital scholarly sources, but also to engender sophisticated research tools designed to foster information exchange and inspire novel lines of scholarly inquiry. In collaboration with HKBU researchers, the Library presents rigorous research in imaginative and engaging formats, ensuring that these intellectual contributions remain both widely accessible and freely available to an international audience. Take a look at our projects below:
- Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong 1941-1945: A Spatial History Project 1941-1945年日據香港空間史研究計劃 (with Prof. Kwong Chi Man of HIST)
- Online Thematic Catalogue of Lully Keyboard Arrangements (with Prof. David Chung of MUS)
Hong Kong Travel Poster Collection 香港旅遊海報
Art Collections
HKBU Library houses a vibrant array of art collections that have been digitised and are now freely accessible online. Browse our collections to discover fascinating pieces of history and culture.
Images from the collections can often be made available for printing for personal and educational use through agreement with the Library, based on Creative Commons licensing. This varies, however, depending on the copyright of a particular work. Learn more and contact us.
Chinese Medicine Databases
Chinese Medicine Databases
Developed in-house by the Library in collaboration with the School of Chinese Medicine, this suite of Open Access databases supports teaching, research, and public engagement in Chinese medicine.
Open Access not only enhances the reach and impact of scholarship but also challenges us to consider who truly owns and shapes knowledge. By championing openly shared resources and inclusive participation, we help ensure that knowledge remains a common good — advancing equity, engagement, and the global public interest.
Last updated: 16 October 2025