From 15 to 17 September 2026, the 18th Berlin Open Access Conference (B18) was held at Harnack House of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, Germany. Hosted by OA Forward, the conference brought together more than 120 representatives from research institutions, funding organizations, libraries, and the international publishing community. Under the theme “Reimagining the Rules of Scholarly Publishing,” participants discussed the future of Open Access and scholarly communication through working groups, a summit, plenary sessions, and poster presentations.

At the invitation of the organizers, an eight-member Chinese delegation comprising representatives from the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL), the National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSLC), the Agricultural Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Library, and the University of Science and Technology of China Library participated in the conference. Chinese delegates served as coordinators, speakers, and presenters, contributing actively to discussions on the development of Open Science and Open Access.

The Chinese delegation shared perspectives and practices on a range of issues, including the equity and sustainability of Open Science, transparency of scholarly publishing costs and investment, metadata quality, and scientific innovation and scholarly autonomy in the age of artificial intelligence. Li Pu, Deputy Director of NSTL, highlighted China's progress in advancing Open Science as a national strategic priority. He also introduced China's exploration of Open Access transformation agreements, institutional repositories, preprints, and Open Science infrastructure.

Liu Xiwen, Researcher at the National Science Library, addressed the structural challenges arising from the continued growth of scholarly publishing, including concerns over equity and sustainability. He called for community-led, public-interest infrastructure for scholarly communication and for reconnecting the full chain of knowledge production, dissemination, and reuse.

The Chinese delegation also engaged in exchanges with representatives from the United States, Germany, Austria, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Brazil, and other countries. Posters presented by Chinese institutions attracted considerable interest, highlighting Chinese practices and innovations in Open Access and Open Science, including the AI-driven agricultural journal cluster platform AgriSCI+ and university experiences in Open Access transformation.

The Berlin Open Access Conference, held since 2003, is an important international platform for strategic discussions on Open Access and scholarly communication, bringing together key stakeholders from around the world to exchange perspectives and explore future directions for Open Access.