We are delighted to invite you to the first of three online events we’re holding this year to mark DOAJ’s twentieth anniversary.

A graphic representation of the details in this blog post, designed as an invite card. It is a black background with the speakers images, detrails about the event and  the sponsor logos.
A graphic of the invitation to the first DOAJ at 20 event, Open.

Date and time: Thursday 15th June 2023 at 13:00 UTC. [Event time where you are.]

Registration and more details

Registration is open right up until the event

About the event

This event is built around the theme ‘Open’ and it will be a conversation with three guests chosen for their experience, aspirations for the future, views on progress towards OA as default, and their knowledge of global open access publishing. Abeni Wickham, a rising star and important new voice in scholarly communications, will moderate the conversation.

The event is free and open to everyone. If you are unable to join the event on the day, you can watch a recording of the event that will be made available afterwards. You can also follow on social media: #DOAJat20.

If you have any questions about the event, please email events@doaj.org.

About our guests

Abeni Wickham, Founder of SciFree

A headshot of Abeni. She is wearing a white shirt and the photo is taken on a blue background

Abeni was born in Guyana, South America and holds a PhD in Molecular Physics from Linkoping University. She left academia in 2018 to create SciFree, a software company with a mission to make research open to the public for free. SciFree currently serves 45 University Library customers in Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the USA. Besides building new tech platforms for university infrastructure, Abeni volunteers on the NASIG Digital Preservation committee, helps PhDs transition in their careers and enjoys surfing both actual waves and the Open Access wave worldwide.

Mikael Laakso, Associate Professor in Information Systems | Hanken School of Economics

A headshot of Mikael. He is wearing a lilac shirt and a charcoal blazer. The photograph has a white background

Mikael Laakso is an Associate Professor in Information Systems Science at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki. He has been researching the changing landscape towards openness in scholarly publishing by studying combinations of bibliometrics, web metrics, business models, science policy, and author behaviour. Since the start of his research in this domain around 2009, DOAJ data has been instrumental to most of his research projects. In addition to research, Mikael has also been active in national and international working groups furthering various dimensions of open science.

Lars Bjørnshauge, Director of Infrastructure Services·Open Access C.I.C

A headshot of Lars taken in a home setting. He looks relaxed. He is wearing a jacket and you can see artwork on the walls behind him

Lars Bjørnshauge is the Director of Infrastructure Services for Open Access C.I.C (www.is4oa.org). A true open access champion, Lars is DOAJ’s founder and worked as the Managing Director until 2022. Previously, he has been the Deputy Director and Acting Director for the Technical Information Center of Denmark at the Technical University of Denmark. Lars has also been the Director of Libraries at Lund University in Sweden and the Director of SPARC Europe. In addition to founding DOAJ, he has also co-founded OpenDOAR (the Directory of Open Access Repositories, DOAB (Directory of Open Access Books), and Think.Check.Submit. Lars was on the OASPA Board from 2012-2019.

Nadine D. Tulloch-Buckland, Director & Senior Lecturer·Spoizer Content Agency Limited, and University of the West Indies

A photo of Nadine who is smiling into the camera. Nadine is wearing a white jacket with thin black, corded horizontal stripes.  In the background, there is a flat screen TV on the wall.

Nadine D. Tulloch-Buckland is the former General Manager of the UWI Press, Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies and Director of Spoizer Content Agency Limited. She has over twenty years of experience in scholarly publishing, specifically focusing on finance and business model development geared towards sustainability in the Caribbean. Nadine is the current Treasurer of ALPSP and former Treasurer/Director of AUPresses. She is an advocate for Sustainable Open Access Publishing.

About our sponsors

We are grateful for the support shown by Crossref and Royal Society of Chemistry who are sponsoring all three of our events. We’re delighted to have them along for the ‘DOAJ at 20’ ride. Thank you!

The logo for the sponsor Crossref, made up of the word Crossref in charcoal grey and a decorative 'S' shape above it in yellow, red, grey and blue.
The logo for the sponsor Royal Society of Chemistry made up of the words RSC spelt out in full in blue. To the left of them is a large C overlayed with yellow, blue, light blue and green.