In 2017, the world of open access took drastic steps forward, both in recognition, legislation and the creation of important new platforms and foundations. However, publishers continue in their fight against open access, especially with regards to pirated scientific papers and the websites that host them.

Open Access had a major step forward when multiple German universities decided not to renew their subscriptions with Elsivier:

A bold open-access push in Germany could change the future of academic publishing

Major German Universities Cancel Elsevier Contracts

In October, publishers filed a lawsuit against ResearchGate, insisting that the platform remove millions of papers:

Publishers threaten to remove millions of papers from ResearchGate

Similarly, in November, science piracy site SciHub was shut down following a lawsuit filed by the American Chemical Society:

Science piracy site Sci Hub has been ordered to shut down

American Chemical Society Wins Lawsuit Against Sci-Hub

The world of academic research also began to realize the prevalence of predatory publishers:

Identifying Predatory Publishers

The United States launched legislation to encourage scientists to share their data:

House Democrats Introduce “Scientific Integrity Act”

May 2017 saw the launch of Gates Foundation open research, as well as the launch of Unpaywall:

Immediate & Transparent Publishing

Launch of Unpaywall

This fall, an Open Access Platform for African scientists was also announced:

African scientists get their own open-access publishing platform