ECLAC Library Open Science webinar series, 25 de octubre de 2023. About the Webinar: How accessible are research papers on major global challenges? In this presentation, Larivière explores how much research on COVID-19 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been published in open access. Larivière and his team discovered that nearly 80 percent of COVID-19 research papers published from January 2020 and December 2021 was open access, while only 56 percent of the SDG papers fell under this category. Meanwhile, research papers on the climate emergency had the second-lowest level of open access at just 55.5 percent. Larivière emphasizes the ongoing need for initiatives that promote open access publishing, as they play a crucial role in facilitating scientific research and technological advancements aimed at tackling global challenges. About the speaker: Vincent Larivière holds the UNESCO Chair on Open Science at the University of Montréal, where he is Professor of Information Science and Associate Vice-President (planning and communications). He is also the Scientific Director of the Érudit journal, and Associate Scientific Director of the Observatoire des Sciences et des Technologies (OST). His research focuses on science policy, scholarly publishing, and diversity and equity in science.