open-washing

A form of openwashing — The act of claiming something is open (without proprietary licensing) when it does not meet all the criteria of openness.

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Meanings

nounopen-washing (uncountable)
  1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of openwashing.

    Finally, the analysis shows that Elsevier profits indirectly and ideologically from openness by open-washing enclosed and toll-accessed subscription articles in hybrid journals with its OA-publishing.

    2020, Arwid Lund, Mariano Zukerfeld, “Profiting from Open Access Publishing”, in Corporate Capitalism's Use of Openness
    2 more examples

    More importantly, ensuring that there are channels for the articulation of demand can help to avoid one of the bigger risks to a transparency and accountability agenda: “open-washing” or passing off the release of inconsequential government-held data as transparency.

    2014, Sonia Khan, Joseph Foti, Aligning Supply and Demand for Better Governance: Open Data in the Open Government Partnership

    The most popular form of xMOOCs (the mostly video-based, computerised courses delivered by Coursera, Udacity etc.) have been accused of “open-washing” – claiming to be open but resting on copyright-restricted “closed” content rather than using an open licence.

    2015, Rory McGreal, “OER to MOOCs: In Defence of Open”, in International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, volume 16, number 5
verb
  1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of open-wash
Cite this entry
APA

open-washing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open-washing

MLA

“open-washing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open-washing. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “open-washing,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open-washing.

Source: open-washing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.