(4 May 2026) Increasing consolidation and commercial control over all aspects of knowledge comes at a cost. This year’s theme challenges us to consider the financial, human, and environmental costs of creating, sharing, and sustaining knowledge—particularly when these costs are driven by private rather than public interests. Last year’s theme of “Who owns our knowledge?” reflected on the reality of commercial ownership of knowledge. This year’s theme will reckon with the costs of that reality and avenues for reclaiming control of these systems meant to serve the public interest.
These costs go well beyond the rapidly inflating price of journal subscriptions and article processing charges. What is the value of the time and effort invested by authors, reviewers, and editors in publications, and whose interests does this uncompensated labor serve? What is the cost of excluding much of the world’s population from equitable participation in producing, sharing, and sustaining their knowledge or of failing to recognize Indigenous Data Sovereignty? Why are researchers’ works being licensed for proprietary AI training without consent or compensation, and why do platforms for sharing knowledge now frequently surveil users? What is the cost of prioritizing data centers over people’s needs for power and water?
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