Open Access is a growing international movement that encourages the unrestricted sharing of scholarly research, data, and other materials with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society. Open Access touts the principle that research should be freely accessible online. OA maximizes access to research, thereby enhancing its visibility, use, and impact.
The Right to Research Coalition in collaboration with PhD Comics brings you this great video about open access. Nick Shockey and Jonathan Eisen take us through the world of open access publishing and explain what it's all about, and why open access to research is important for students, researchers, and so many other stakeholders.
International Open Access Week events at George Mason University draw attention to the unrestricted sharing of scholarly research and materials for the advancement and enjoyment of all. Open Access (OA) literature is freely accessible online - maximizing the visibility, use and impact of research. Building on the success of prior events, University Libraries' plans events and distributes information during OA Week that offer students, faculty, staff and the public an opportunity to learn more about OA and Mason's OA initiatives.
International Open Access Week builds on the momentum started by a student-led national day of action in 2007. The following year, 120 campuses in 27 countries celebrated Open Access Day. Organizers and contributors include:
eIFL.net (Electronic Information for Libraries)
OAD (Open Access Directory)
OASIS (Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook)
PLoS (Public Library of Science)
SPARC (Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition)
Students for Free Culture
Open Access Week is an opportunity to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access to research, including access policies from all types of research funders, within the international higher education community and the general public. The now-annual event has been expanded from a single day to accomodate widespread global interest in the movement toward open, public access to scholarly research. The first International Open Access Week was from October 19-23, 2009.
For more information about Open Access Week, please visit http://www.openaccessweek.org/.
Open Access Week at George Mason University is planned and produced by the University Libraries' Scholarly Communications Team.
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) operates an interactive Open Access Week web site. Registered users can participate in the ongoing discussion about Open Access Week events at their institution.