Call for Papers - 2024 Annual Forum

Transforming Knowledge Into Action

21st-23rd October | Doha, Qatar

The goal of this conference is to bring together librarians, researchers, policy makers and university leaders, to support the exchange of ideas, and facilitate the development of new collaborative communities and partnerships. In our previous Annual Forums, we focused on sharing knowledge, exchanging ideas, and building communities. This year we will focus on Transforming Knowledge into Action. We are therefore especially delighted to be partnering with the Qatar National Library for the 2024 Annual Forum, reflecting QNL’s mission to empower the people of Qatar in their research and learning journeys.

Open Science in higher education institutions and research communities is a highly complex and rapidly evolving landscape, and there are many ways of transforming knowledge into practical action. We have therefore identified 4 thematic areas for this year’s Annual Forum, reflecting the priorities of our members and wider network across the Arab states:

  • Policies and funding:
    • Open access and research assessment policies
    • Funding sources and allocations
    • developing policies and determining best practises to support sustainability in Arab scholarly communications ecosystems
    • Incorporating SDGs in research and education strategic planning
  • Open Access publishing and open education resources
    • Preprints, transparent peer review, and open access publishing
    • Creating and disseminating open resources
    • The commercialisation of Open Science
    • Building and using Institutional repositories
  • Capacity building and community engagement
    • Adapting and decolonising practises and resources for the Arab region
    • Building and Sustaining Communities of Practices (CoP) in Arabic speaking countries
    • Digital and human capacity building
  • Open infrastructure and infrastructure supporting Open Science
    • The rise of community-owned and community-led Open Science infrastructures and publications
    • Implementing reproducible, open and interoperable infrastructure in the Arab region
    • Using AI to advance engagement with open science policies and practises in the Arab world

This year, the Annual Forum will offer a mixture of individual presentations, moderated round table discussions, and workshops. As accessibility lies at the hearts of everything we do, this will be a fully hybrid event, with all in-person activities live streamed, in English and Arabic. The programme will include a full day of online presentations, two days of in-person presentations, and a half day of high-impact workshops.

We therefore invite proposals for presentations, round table discussions, and workshops (in English or Arabic) linked with any aspect of the themes and topics listed above. Particular preference will be given to regional case studies relating to the challenged and solutions within our thematic areas, offering new and innovative examples of transforming Open Science knowledge into policies and practises in the Arab region.

Proposals will be submitted via an online form HERE. When submitting, you will be asked to provide the following information:

  • Specify whether you wish to present online or in person, and whether you wish to present in English or in Arabic
  • Specify which thematic area your proposal sits within.
  • Provide the proposal title, and a 300 word summary of the presentation you wish to give.
  • Provide presenter name, institutional affiliation, email address and a short 100 word professional biography. (NB if you are submitting a workshop proposal or a round table discussion proposal – please include these details for all presenters involved).

Please note: all presenters will be required to cover any travel and accommodation costs, together with the conference fee. There is a special discounted rate for presenters attending the event in person of $130, and presenters who are not attending in person do not have to pay a fee.

The submission deadline is the 1st of June. The proposals will be reviewed by the Advisory Board, and acceptance notifications sent out in early July.

If you have any questions, please contact our Team via email (contact@theforumforopenresearch.com)

Speaker Registration

Speakers attending the event in-person will be required to register. Selected speakers will receive a special 52% discount rate of $130 when registering for the event. This fee will includes attendance at the conference, all coffee breaks and lunches, the drinks reception(s) and Gala Dinner, the opportunity to attend our valuable workshops, and access to our networking activities. Attendees and speakers will also receive a Certificate of Attendance.

CALL FOR PAPERS

26-27 OCTOBER, 2022 | CAIRO

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The Forum for Open Research in MENA (F.O.R.M.) is being organised by the Knowledge E Foundation and Gulf Conferences to support and promote Open Science across the Middle East and North Africa. Endorsed and supported by UNESCO, our Advisory Partner, this event is designed to foster awareness and understanding of Open Science and its benefits, and facilitate the exchange of ideas and actionable insights. Bringing together leading international experts and key regional stakeholders, along with open-source and open-resource solutions and technology providers, our goal is to provide a forum for MENA librarians, researchers, government policy makers and higher-education institutions to exchange ideas and start new cross-regional collaborations developing Open Research policies and infrastructure.

The movement towards Open Science is vitally important to ensuring the long-term sustainability and inclusivity of our education systems and scholarly communities. However, Open Science is also a complex and multi-faceted concept, and it can be difficult to know how and where to start. The problem is compounded by the negative publicity surrounding predatory publishing practices and the mistrust of Open Access which this has engendered in the MENA region (and across the world), together with issues surrounding funding allocation and the disparity in subject-field approaches.

F.O.R.M. seeks to address these issues by encouraging discussion and debate amongst leading regional and global stakeholders, facilitating the development of structural frameworks and practical policies. We hope to encourage participants to consider all the issues surrounding equitable Open Scholarship and Open Science practices, by bringing together industry leaders and global experts, and providing a mixture of outstanding talks, strategy sessions, networking opportunities and workshops.

We invite scientists, scholars, and professionals to discuss new findings, research and case studies on the role, impact, and implementation of an aspect of Open Science in the higher education sector. Proposals for 20-minute papers, pre-made panels, and roundtable sessions are all welcome.

Preference will be given to proposals addressing the following themes, relating to the main issues impacting the growth of Open Science in the MENA region (as identified by UNESCO):

  • The development and implementation of Open Science infrastructure
  • The design and implementation of Open Science policies and strategies
  • Capacity building for Open Science stakeholders, enabling them to develop and implement relevant infrastructures, policies and strategies
  • Open Science financing and incentives to ensure sustainable growth and healthy education ecosystems
  • The construction and monitoring of assessment frameworks for Open Science in MENA

Topics can also include but are not restricted to:

  • Why is Open Science important?
  • Sustainability and Open Science 
  • Broader accessibility and inclusivity implications
  • How university leaderships can support the creation of equitable Open Science
  • How libraries can support Open Access
  • How can strategic visions be transformed into practical policies and actions?
  • Best practices for Open Access publishing and how to make Open Access publishing models work for libraries and universities
  • Practical guidance (e.g. advisory documentation on trusted open education tools, services, repositories and indexes)
  • Using researcher KPIs to encourage Open Science
  • How to support the accessibility and global visibility of Arabic language research
  • Disparities in subject field approaches to and engagement with Open Scholarship
  • Predatory publishing
  • Misunderstanding and mistrust of Open Access and Open Science
  • MENA case studies for libraries, universities, and government policy-makers
  • Open data
  • Open citation, bibliometrics, impact
  • Repositories and discovery channels (inc. pre-print)
  • Open peer review and transparent publishing possibilities and practicalities
  • Licensing
  • Open Science, authoring, and publishing tools
  • Open resource software and open resource service providers
  • Technical solutions, business models and non-commercial alternatives to support Open Science

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Please send short summaries of your proposed papers (maximum 300 words), together with a short biography of the speaker(s) (including institutional affiliation or employer, and relevant expertise in this field). We do not require the full papers at this time, and will not need the full paper until the event. Submission deadline for short summaries – 31st August 2022. Send proposals to the Conference Organisers (addressed to Dr Emily Choynowski) by email (contact@forumforopenresearch.com) or via the website submission form. The Advisory Committee will review the proposal abstracts, and presenters will be notified no later than September 14th, 2022. Travel and visa advice will be provided shortly afterwards. We accept submissions in English and Arabic, however where proposals are in Arabic please provide a translation, and please be aware that all we will require Arabic-language presentations to be accompanied English language versions of the papers (provided in advance so delegates can access them online and follow the presentations).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ICON book (1)

CONFERENCE
ORGANISERS

ICON committee (1)

ADVISORY
COMMITTEE

ICON agenda (1)

EVENT
AGENDA

Please direct any enquiries regarding the Forum to contact@forumforopenresearch.com. We welcome expressions of interest in sponsorship, as our sponsors enable us to make the event accessible and affordable for as many delegates as possible.
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