This year’s International Open Access Week (20–26 October) challenges us with a powerful question: Who owns our knowledge? In a time of rapid change and disruption, how can communities reclaim control over the knowledge they create and share? At White Rose University Press and the Open Research team at the University of York, we believe that openness and ownership are not mutually exclusive - they can, and must, go hand in hand.
Open access publishing is at the heart of this mission. As a fully open access digital publisher, White Rose University Press is committed to making scholarly research freely available to everyone, anywhere in the world. Our content is accessible without paywalls or user authentication, meaning that academic work reaches beyond the walls of universities to inform practitioners, policymakers, and communities globally.
One of the key ways we empower authors is by removing barriers to sharing and reuse. All our publications are released under Creative Commons licences, ensuring that authors retain ownership and control over their work. This means that while knowledge is freely accessible, the rights remain with the creators - not the publisher.
From our personal perspective, we are dedicated to supporting every author to ensure that ownership truly resides with them. We work closely with our authors to clarify their rights, explain the options available under Creative Commons licences, and uphold their control over how their work is shared, used, and reused.
Supporting this open culture requires more than just publishing. The University of York’s Open Research team provides crucial guidance and resources to researchers throughout the entire research lifecycle - from planning and data management to publication and dissemination. They help embed open research principles across disciplines while ensuring that researchers meet their funders’ open access requirements.
Together, WRUP and the Open Research team foster a culture where openness is the default - but always balanced with respect for author rights, equity of access, and recognition of diverse voices.
But there are still challenges. Despite growing support for open access, ownership of scholarly knowledge often remains entangled in restrictive publishing agreements, paywalls, and commercial interests. Authors can find themselves signing over rights to their own work, limiting how it can be shared or reused. These barriers disproportionately affect those without institutional support or funding, further entrenching inequalities in who can access - or contribute to - the scholarly record. Addressing these challenges means rethinking not just how we publish, but who benefits from research, and whose voices are included in shaping the global knowledge commons.
Why does this matter?
Open access empowers not just academics but also practitioners, policymakers, and the wider public. It breaks down barriers of geography, economic status, and institutional affiliation, allowing knowledge to be shared, reused, and built upon - driving innovation and societal change.
As we reflect on the question, Who owns our knowledge? It's more imperative than ever that together we strive to reimagine a research culture that is both open and inclusive - where knowledge is freely accessible but still belongs to its creators. Through collaboration, commitment to openness, and respect for authorship, we can build a more equitable and vibrant scholarly ecosystem.