[AI Summary]: This symposium addresses critical challenges facing Korean humanities and social science scholarship in the AI era, including unauthorized use of academic data for commercial AI training, international journal evaluation issues, and copyright concerns. The event brings together policymakers, researchers, and academic societies to discuss establishing researcher data sovereignty principles and finding practical solutions for protecting academic knowledge in the age of generative AI.
The symposium takes place on November 21, 2025, from 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM (Seoul time) at the National Library of Korea Digital Library 2nd Floor Seminar Room, with Zoom streaming available.
- Date: November 21, 2025 (Friday)
- Time: 13:30-17:00 (KST)
- Location: National Library of Korea Digital Library, 2nd Floor Seminar Room
- Online: Zoom available
- Organizers: Knowledge Sharing Alliance (지식공유연대) / National Library of Korea
- Language: Korean
Overview
The symposium focuses on three key objectives:
- Declaration of Principles: Announcing “AI Era, Principles for Establishing Researcher Academic Data Sovereignty” to clarify researcher rights and the public nature of academic data
- Mutual Dialogue: Creating a platform for policy-making institutions, field researchers, and academic societies to listen to each other
- Practical Solutions: Seeking actionable solutions based on mutual understanding through dialogue
Context
Recent environmental changes surrounding Korean humanities and social science scholarship include:
- Academic data potentially being used without consent for commercial AI training
- Norwegian and Finnish academic journal evaluation agencies downgrading Korean journals (including prestigious journals like Economy and Society receiving Level 0 ratings in 2024)
- Financial difficulties in the OA transition process
- Policy issues between public and commercial platforms
- Insufficient copyright awareness within the academic community
The National Library’s KJCI (Korea Journal Copyright Information) system provides copyright policy information for Korean journals, but many journals still do not specify CC licenses, increasing copyright infringement risks in the AI era.