KARACHI – An amazing accomplishment indeed as ILMA proceeded to hold the 2nd Virtual International Conference on Is Open Access Critical In Scholarly Communication. This mega event was organized by the Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) which brought the most significant area of accessibility of knowledge in the current era with its large scale impact. This spectacular virtual conference had the most eminent figures on board from the education and publishing sectors to make its presence known globally.
The opening day unfolded with these powerful speakers Dr Tahir A. Shah Director (R&D), Division, Higher Education Commission, Govt. of Pakistan, Nadia Tahir. Ex. MD, Higher Education Commission, Govt. of Pakistan, Dr. Denis Ushakov Professor, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Dr Beth Ann Fiedler, Independent Researcher Analyst & Editor at Elsevier Inc., Mr Josh Dahl. Product Director at Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics, USA.Day two was highlighted by the information and research of Dillip. N. Professor & Co- Chancellor at Commonwealth University, Aijaz A. Shaikh, Associate Editor, Digital Business (Elsevier), Professor, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, Dr Nadeem Malik, Professor, University of Baluchistan, Pakistan & Editor SAGE Open. Dr Linus K. Chirchir, United States International University, Africa. Marguerite Wotton, Professor, University De Quebec Montreal, Canada, Dr A. Osman. Associate Member, Committee of Publishing Ethics, COPE. Some unbelievable dialogues and discussions in this global conference took place that brought to the surface the well-founded observations and findings which were quite relevant to chart the role of various organizations in the different domains of open access knowledge through promoting, publishing models and open licences. The myths were also busted about this as well as the ethics explored. There was keen participation from the US, Canada, UK, Finland, Russia, Africa and Thailand which was a true testimony of the University’s worldwide outreach through this international event.
