10.30am Pacific Time | 1.30pm Eastern Time | 6.30pm GMT | 7.30pm CET
Open access advocates routinely proclaim the importance of information as a public good. Access to information and knowledge has been codified in the UN Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19). But what is actually happening on the ground? Does it matter that we make scholarly research open to those beyond academia? Who else is finding, reading and benefitting from open content? Where are they and what are they doing with the information? In short – why do we care about opening up access to scholarship? And what is the risk of not having this content openly available?
At a time when the relevance of taxpayer-funded research at universities and other institutions is being questioned and debated, this session will include perspectives from four US-based speakers. Panellists will explore not just how open access contributes to the general information environment, but if and how open access can serve as a force multiplier in this current period of destabilisation and uncertainty.
Join us for this exciting first webinar of 2026 where we will hear from a fantastic lineup of speakers outlining why access to research matters in the real world. Be sure to bring your own views and questions along so you can contribute to this live discussion.
Please share this link with all who may be interested in this webinar – https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_N-2jxmHHRCmRklybWt7m7Q#/registration
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Please note that views expressed in OASPA webinars are those of the individual speakers and do not represent the view of OASPA.
Lacey N. LaGrone, MD, MPH, MA, FACS
Lacey LaGrone is a trauma surgeon with graduate training and nine years of research experience in dissemination and implementation science. Whether working with health care assistants in a remote village in Malawi, or general surgeons in Lima, Peru; Seattle, Washington; or Loveland, Colorado, she has grown to appreciate that adequate access to up to date, resource-relevant, user-friendly medical information is essential to be able to execute the ambition of treating patients the way one would want ones’ family treated. Thus, her mission is to limit human suffering attributable to providers not having adequate access to, or application of, evidence-based medicine.
Lacey’s experience in global initiatives to understand and address barriers to clinical guidance access and adherence position her well to connect across disciplines and contexts.
Beth Daley
Beth Daley is the Executive Editor and General Manager for The Conversation, US, where articles are written by academic researchers in their respective areas of expertise, and then edited by The Conversation’s staff to ensure a balance between reader accessibility and academic rigour.
Beth is also a Pulitzer Prize finalist for climate reporting at the Boston Globe where she worked for over two decades. After the Globe, she was at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting as a reporter and director of partnerships. As Director of Strategic Development at InsideClimate, she worked to diversify the Pulitzer Prize-winning news outlet’s revenue stream. Beth attended Stanford University as a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow in 2011/2012. At The Conversation, she emphasises the importance of open access, and of sharing ideas openly.
Joy Connolly
Joy Connolly began her service as President of the American Council of Learned Societies on July 1, 2019. Previously, she served as provost and interim president of The Graduate Center at the City University of New York, where she was also Distinguished Professor of Classics. She has held faculty appointments at New York University, where she served as Dean for the Humanities from 2012-16, Stanford University, and the University of Washington.
Committed to broadening scholars’ impact on the world, Joy advocates for the value of the full range of humanistic methods and topics, including publicly oriented and community-engaged scholarship. She has published two books with Princeton University Press and over seventy articles, reviews, and short essays, and is currently at work on All the World’s Pasts, which argues for the establishment of a new field of global, transcultural ancient studies. Connolly earned a BA from Princeton University in 1991 and a PhD in classical studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.
Ameet Doshi Webinar moderator and speaker
Ameet Doshi joined Princeton University Library as head of the Donald E. Stokes Library in 2021. He has a PhD in public policy from Georgia Tech, where he completed his dissertation, “Public Use of Open Access Research: Evidence from the National Academies and Harvard DASH Repository.” He also holds a master’s in public administration (MPA) from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington and a master’s of science in information science (MSIS) from the University of Tennessee.
His work has been published in Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, PLOS One, and Energy Research and Social Science.
Ameet collaborates with Stokes Library colleagues to support Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), the Office of Population Research, and students, faculty, and researchers exploring policy-related topics. His research interests include computational social science, bibliometrics, and science and technology policy. In 2025 he authored an article asking: Is Open Access for Everyone? – the inspiration for this webinar. Ameet is currently examining public use of OA monographs with colleagues from Georgia Tech and the University of Michigan.
