FREE UKSG webinar: Why We All Need to #DefendResearch

This is a fantastic opportunity to listen to expert speakers with no travelling required. This is a free webinar – Please note that advance registration is required. This webinar will be recorded and all registrants will receive a link to the recording after the session.

When

Tuesday, May 5, 2026
From 15:00 GMT to 16:00 GMT

..

Where

Online
United Kingdom

About the Event

Recent U.S. government actions (such as restricting language in research proposals, limiting international collaborations, removing public data, and influencing federally funded publications) fall under the broad category of censorship. As scholarly communications professionals, we know that censorship is a threat to both the researchers we serve and the important research they conduct. Many researchers and research projects have lost funding, or been limited in their ability to pursue, communicate, and publish their work freely, creating uncertainty about career security and advancement.

As individuals, many of us are standing up for what we believe in; unfortunately, this is less the case at the organizational level, which is creating a disconnect whose impact will surely be felt in the future — between faculty, students, librarians and their institutions; and between journal editors, publishing staff, and their organizations. In this session you’ll hear from Lisa Schiff, the initiator of the Declaration to #DefendResearch against U.S. Government Censorship, and two of its organizational signatories — Louis Coiffait-Gunn of CILIP and Terri Teleen of Emerald Publishing. They’ll share their perspectives on why, when, and how organizations can fight back against censorship of research, and discuss the challenges — and opportunities — this represents for our community.

Disclaimer: As part of our mission to connect the knowledge community and encourage the exchange of ideas, UKSG hosts discussions on a wide range of topics affecting scholarly communication. The views and opinions expressed by speakers in this session are their own and do not necessarily represent the official position of UKSG. 

REGISTER HERE


.

Alice Meadows

Consultant | ORE Consulting

Alice is an independent scholarly communications consultant and a co-founder of the MoreBrains Cooperative, a consulting organization that specializes in — and supports the values of — open research. For this webinar, she is speaking in her capacity as one of the co-authors of The Declaration to Defend Research against US Government Censorship.

.

Louis Coiffait-Gunn
CEO | CILIP the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals


Louis is responsible for championing CILIP members and the whole library, knowledge, and information profession, as well as ensuring the talented CILIP team keeps performing and evolving to meet members’ needs. He is passionate about helping members to inform decision-making at all levels and in all sectors of society, to support people to learn, and to enrich our culture.
Louis has worked in government, research organisations, professional associations, universities, trade bodies and the press, and has volunteered on the boards of schools, universities and charities.

.

Terri Teleen

President, Americas | Emerald Publishing

Terri Teleen manages the Americas region for Emerald Publishing, an independent scholarly publisher founded in the UK 1967. She serves on the senior leadership team and is responsible for Emerald’s strategy and brand in the Americas. Terri has nearly 30 years of experience in scholarly communications, most recently serving in publishing, operations, and commercial strategy roles at John Wiley & Sons. She lives in the Boston area.

Lisa Schiff

Co-author | Declaration to Defend Research Against U.S. Government Censorship

Lisa Schiff, M.L.I.S., Ph.D. is a co-author of the Declaration to Defend Research Against U.S. Government Censorship and is also the Associate Director of the Publishing, Archives, & Digitization group at the California Digital Library, University of California. The thoughts and perspectives shared on this topic are her own and are not meant to represent those of her employer.


● Understand why censorship of research is dangerous and learn about some examples
● Understand what the Declaration to Defend Research against US Government Censorship is
● Find out what some organizations are doing to fight back against censorship


Introductory and non-intensive, no previous knowledge or experience required.


To help you prepare for UKSG webinars, you may like to read the Notes for Participants:

UKSG Webinars Notes for Participants 2026

To test your system ahead of time, please visit https://support.goto.com/webinar/system-check-attendee

Follow UKSG on X @UKSG #UKSGwebinar


This is a free webinar and is open to members and non-members of UKSG alike – Please note that advance registration is required.

REGISTER HERE

Unable to attend? Register anyway and we will send you a link to a recording of the webinar after the event. If you have already registered and are subsequently unable to attend, please do not cancel your registration – only active registrations will receive the recording in a follow-up e-mail.


UKSG wants to provide the best possible experience for all our delegates, making presentations as accessible and inclusive as possible. Our intention were possible is to strongly encourage our speakers to provide auto generated closed captioning for both live and recorded events as well as to make sure their slides are as easy as possible for all people to read. In addition we can provide auto generated transcripts post event for each of the recorded sessions.

If you have particular accessibility needs or questions about this webinar, we welcome you to contact Samira Sotomayor.

Feedback

The UKSG webinars are great for me – they offer a wide range of topics and are very well prepared. I never experienced any technical difficulties. Due to the austerity measures brought by the recent worldwide events the training budget in my institution was frozen, so the fact that UKSG webinars are free is really a boon too!

Anonymous

The UKSG webinar was fantastic – well-organized, timely, accessible, and with an array of presenters that had insight into the topic

Anonymous

Great to squeeze in so much useful knowledge and information without having to go out to a conference. I could enjoy taking it in with a sandwich at my desk! I felt very empowered afterwards.

Emma Thompson, Glasgow Caledonian University

Share this Event

Please help us by letting your colleagues and friends know about our event. Thank you.