FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2010
For more information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
(202) 296-2296 ext. 121
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org
Open Access Week 2010 declared for October 18 to 24
Researchers challenged to demonstrate the impact of Open Access on
research and scholarship
(Washington, DC) Open Access Week, the global event to promote free,
immediate, online access to research now entering its fourth year, has
been declared for October 18 to 24, 2010. Open Access Week is an
opportunity for the worldwide academic and research community to
continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access (OA), to
share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to inspire wider
participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship
and research.
“Open Access Week has evolved from a one-day student event on a dozen
campuses to a truly global phenomenon,” said Jennifer McLennan, Open
Access Week program director at SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and
Academic Resources Coalition). “We’ve seen participation expand to
include hundreds of university and college campuses, research
institutes, funding agencies, libraries, and think tanks – all
connecting the fast-growing global momentum toward openness with the
advancement of policy changes on the local level.” In 2009, Open
Access Week spurred the announcement of actions including expanded
open-access publication funds, the adoption of institution-wide open-
access policies, and the release of new reports on the societal and
economic benefits of OA.
This year’s OA Week preparations kick off with a challenge to
researchers from Dr. Philip E. Bourne, Professor of Pharmacy and
Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California San Diego and
Founding Editor-in-Chief of PLoS Computational Biology. In a video
posted to the OA Week Web site, Bourne calls upon scholars to think
beyond free and ready access to the literature – made possible by Open
Access – and consider how technology may be deployed to advance
research, to truly mine the increasing amount of available literature.
He says, “What I think ultimately will be the main success of Open
Access, is that you have the full text of the literature in an XML
format that can be analyzed and used by computer. The idea that we’ll
be able to keep up with [the volume of literature being published] is
just untenable. To actually make full use of the literature, we’re
going to require tools to help us.” He challenges his peers in the
research community to surface efforts like SciVee (a new type of
learning experience that mashes up journal articles with rich media)
and UCSD’s BioLit (an initiative to integrate database identifiers and
rich meta-data from open-access articles with biological databases) –
both of which “would not be possible without unbridled and free access
to the literature.”
Challenges like Dr. Bourne’s, and responses to them – experiences and
projects that demonstrate the power of Open Access to enable the Web
and advance discovery – will be highlighted across global efforts in
conjunction with the Week. Details may be posted or linked on the Open
Access Week Web site by October 10, 2010.
The new Open Access Week Web site, at http://www.openaccessweek.org,
details how participants across sectors – from research funders and
producers to students and libraries – have taken advantage of the
event to advance Open Access, and offers ideas for 2010.
“There are a multitude of ways to participate in OA Week,” said Alma
Swan, program adviser. “It can be as simple as wearing a bright orange
shirt or as complex as introducing a new OA policy. OA Week may also
be the chance to let your imagination have full rein and come up with
something ambitious, wacky, or fun.”
Organizations and individuals planning to participate or interested in
more information about Open Access Week 2010 should register now on
the Web site for access to regional and global contacts and resources.
Open Access Week is organized by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and
Academic Resources Coalition), with expert guidance from an
international panel of Open Access leaders. Program advisers include:
Subbiah Arunachalam (Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore),
Leslie Chan (University of Toronto, Scarborough, OASIS), Melissa
Hagemann (Open Society Institute), Thomas Hickerson (University of
Calgary), Heather Joseph (SPARC), Iryna Kuchma (eIFL.net), Li Lin
(National Science Library, CAS), Donna Okubo (Public Library of
Science), Robin Peek (Open Access Directory, Simmons College),
Carolina Rossini (Berkman Center), Nick Shockey (Right to Research
Coalition), Peter Suber (Berkman Center, Earlham College, SPARC), Alma
Swan (Key Perspectives Ltd, OASIS), Ikuko Tsuchide (Digital Repository
Federation, Japan), Xiaolin Zhang (National Science Library, CAS).
For more information, visit the Open Access Week Web site at http://www.openaccessweek.org
.
##
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’s advocacy, educational, and
publisher partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of
research. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc.
-------------------------------------
Jennifer McLennan
Director of Programs & Operations
SPARC
[email protected]
(202) 296-2296 x121
Fax: (202) 872-0884
*******************************
SPARC 2010 Digital Repositories Meeting
November 8 & 9 - Baltimore, MD
http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/09-0223.shtml
*******************************
Open Access Week 2010
October 18 - 24. Everywhere.
http://www.openaccessweek.org
*******************************
http://www.arl.org/sparc
==========
This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to
The SPARC Open Access Forum.
To post, send your message to <[email protected]>.
To unsubscribe, email to <[email protected]>.
To switch to digest mode, email to <[email protected]>.
To switch to index mode, email to <[email protected]>.
Send administrative queries to <[email protected]>.
