Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Nonetheless, access to information is frequently challenged and curtailed, through government, private, or individual actions; many of these acts may be considered censorship (depending upon one’s definition of censorship). Censorship, freedom of speech, and access to information have long been central concerns of library and information science.

Argument

Open Information Science Journal invites submissions for a special issue dedicated to scholarship on the broad theme of Access to information—freedom and censorship. Library and information science scholars and practitioners around the world are encouraged to submit a paper on this theme.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Nonetheless, access to information is frequently challenged and curtailed, through government, private, or individual actions; many of these acts may be considered censorship (depending upon one’s definition of censorship). Censorship, freedom of speech, and access to information have long been central concerns of library and information science. Various themes in our contemporary society suggest that these themes are especially relevant and significant now: the breadth of technological platforms and their ability/ willingness to censor individuals and particular viewpoints; the rise of far right and totalitarian governments across many nations and regions; the increasing attention paid to data privacy and the right to be forgotten; government and corporate surveillance and data aggregation; and a sense of resignation or complacency with regard to these trends.

The guest editor welcomes diverse perspectives on this theme, broadly conceived. Submissions should include the following:

• The author’s full name, physical address, and email address.
• A title for the proposed paper (a tentative title is acceptable)
• A proposal of no more than 500 words, outlining the theme, research question, hypothesis or focus of the paper, the research approach to be taken to the study (for theoretical or conceptual papers) or the research strategy and methodology to be used (for a research paper or case study), and any other details that help explain the intended purpose and scope of the paper.
• Between 3 and 6 keywords to represent the themes or topics in the paper.

How to submit

Abstracts should be sent to Guest Editor (shannon.oltmann@uky.edu) or Managing Editor (katarzyna.grzegorek@degruyter.com)

before 31 May 2019.

Authors of accepted submissions are kindly invited to register at our paper processing system at: http://www.editorialmanager.com/opis/ and submit their contribution. Every manuscript should be clearly marked as intended for this special issue. All papers will go through the Open Linguistics’ high standards, quick, fair and comprehensive peer-review procedure. Instructions for authors are available here. In case of any questions, please contact Guest Editor (shannon.oltmann@uky.edu) or Managing Editor (katarzyna.grzegorek@degruyter.com).

As an author of Open Information Science you will benefit from:

• transparent, comprehensive and fast peer review managed by our esteemed Guest Editor;
• efficient route to fast-track publication and full advantage of De Gruyter e-technology;
• no publication fees;
• free language assistance for authors from non-English speaking regions.

The deadline to submit full papers is 31 October 2019.

Guest Editor

• Shannon Oltmann