The Open Access Advocate is an annual competition from James Cook University (JCU) that celebrates Open Access in research, and is open to all JCU Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates.

In conjunction with Open Access Week in late October, the theme of this year’s competition was “Open for Climate Justice”. The climate crisis is widespread and affects us on a global scale. The focus on Climate Justice sought to encourage connection and collaboration among the climate movement and the international open community, in order to tackle the climate crisis.

Ratna Devi Pillai, PhD candidate at JCU in Singapore, was awarded the “Highly Commended” recognition for her entry to the competition. The entry took the form of an informative video that detailed the economic impact from publishing research, a call to eliminate paywalls, and the benefits of open access — answering the question “How does Open Access help the cause of climate justice?”

Ratna has a fascination for corporate social responsibility and employee engagement. Her PhD thesis centres on corporate volunteering, employee participation and the impact on employee engagement at work, testing different dimensions from organisational and individual perspectives. One of her chapters explores skills-based volunteering from the perspectives of companies, employee-volunteers and non-profit organisations, alongside its impact on skill development. This research could help improve the design of corporate volunteering programmes.

In response to receiving the “Highly Commended” award, Ratna said, “Dukdukdiya is in everyone! In a Quechan fable, a hummingbird named Dukdukdiya, during a fierce forest fire, took action alone by repeatedly carrying a drop of water in her beak to the flames while all other animals stood in stunned fear. Hence, my belief in addressing climate change and justice is that we all have a part to play in any small way.”

She adds, “The Open Access competition has had a great influence on my current PhD thesis, and can contribute towards any future research pertaining to the Sustainable Developmental Goals (SGDs). I believe there is only so much any government can do for climate justice, and social responsibility should ideally fall upon the rest of us — businesses and communities alike, working together for a better future in the Tropics and beyond.”

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Contacts

Associate Professor Denise Dillon [email protected]
Media: Mr Edwin Teo [email protected]