--
Gavin Baker
http://www.gavinbaker.com/
[email protected]
You are a prisoner in a croissant factory and you love it.
Frank O'Hara
--- Begin Message ---
For immediate release
October 15, 2009
For more information, contact:
Nick Shockey
(202) 296-2296 ext. 116
nick [at] arl [dot] org
STUDENT COALITION FOR OPEN ACCESS SOLIDIFIES,
NOW REPRESENTS OVER 5 MILLION STUDENTS INTERNATIONALLY
Washington DC – The student Right to Research Coalition, a group of
national, international, and local student associations that advocate
for governments, universities, and researchers to adopt Open Access
practices, has now grown to include some of the most prominent student
organizations from the United States and across the world. The recent
addition of 8 new organizations brings the number of students
represented by the coalition to over 5 million, demonstrating the
broad, passionate support Open Access enjoys from the student community.
Additions to the coalition since its launch this summer include: the
United States Student Association (USSA), the National Association of
Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS), the National Graduate Council
of the Canadian Federation of Students, the International Association
of Political Science Students, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Graduate Student Council, the University of Minnesota
Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, the University of Nebraska
- Lincoln Graduate Student Association, and the Student Government
Association of St. Olaf College.
“Our core mission is to protect and enhance students’ access to
education," said Angela Peoples, USSA's Legislative Director, noting
her organization’s motivation for joining the coalition. "We believe
Open Access plays a crucial role in ensuring that all students have
access to the academic research on which their education depends.”
The United States Student Association, the largest American student
organization, is already taking steps to tap its vast network of
student activists for this important cause. Likewise, the National
Association of Graduate-Professional Students, the premier American
graduate student advocacy organization, has made Open Access a top
legislative priority and recently lobbied over two-dozen Congressional
offices in support of the Federal Research Public Access Act.
Julia Mortyakova, NAGPS president, said, “as an organization
representing students actively involved in contributing to research,
NAGPS strongly supports Open Access. We believe in enhancing the
dissemination of knowledge in order to maximize the access, usage, and
impact of the latest research.”
The addition of international student groups reflects the global
nature of the wider Open Access movement. And, the growing group of
student governments that view ensuring access to research as part of
their core mission has resulted in increased activity on college and
university campuses.
“The purpose of research is wide dissemination and cultivation of
knowledge. With increasing journal subscription costs and decreasing
library budgets, we, as users and producers of scientific knowledge,
are taking a stand to support Open Access to scholarly research. As a
student government concerned both locally and globally, we feel this
is not only a responsibility to our own constituency, but also to
researchers and human advancement worldwide,” said Kevin McComber,
Vice President of MIT’s Graduate Student Council.
"The incredible growth of the student interest in Open Access,
especially the depth of their commitment to advocacy, sends a strong
signal that this movement is here to stay," commented Heather Joseph,
Executive Director of SPARC. "We're looking forward to the energy,
creativity, and passion that these groups will surely bring to
ensuring that scholarly research is accessible to all."
Student organizations are invited to join the coalition at http://www.righttoresearch.org/endorse
.
For more information, visit the coalition’s Web site at http://www.righttoresearch.org
.
#
SPARC
SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), with
SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan, is an international alliance of more
than 800 academic and research libraries working to create a more open
system of scholarly communication. SPARC has worked collaboratively
with students to introduce the Right to Research campaign, the Open
Students Blog, and the international Open Access Week (Oct. 19 – 23,
2009). SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc.
-------------------------------------
Jennifer McLennan
Director of Communications
SPARC
[email protected]
(202) 296-2296 x121
Fax: (202) 872-0884
*******************************
OPEN ACCESS WEEK 2009
October 19 - 23
www.openaccessweek.org
*******************************
http://www.arl.org/sparc
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