Open Access Week 2012

 

The international scholarly community celebrates Open Access Week October 22-28, 2012 with events taking place all over the world. Give your scholarly work greater reach by making your articles free to read, anywhere, any time. There are many paths to open access: post your own publications on your web site, deposit them in an open repository, or publish in an open access journal. Northwestern University's Center for Scholarly Communication & Digital Curation can help you navigate your authors agreement and find an open access method that will work for you. For more information, contact us at cscdc@northwestern.edu.

 

 

EVENTS

 

Monday, October 22 @ 3:00pm

Perspectives on Open Access: Practice, Progress, and Pitfalls
An Open Access Week kickoff webcast from SPARC and the World Bank. Public viewing will be hosted at the Center for Scholarly Communication & Digital Curation, Northwestern University Library, 2 East, room 2699A. 

 

Thursday, October 25 @ 3:30pm

Open Access 101
Claire Stewart, Head of Digital Collections and Scholarly Communication Services, and Josh Honn, Digital Scholarship Library Fellow, present a brief introduction to open access and update on recent developments. Event will be held at Northwestern University Library, Forum Room. 

 

Friday, October 26 @ 9:00am
Copyright and the Academy in Transition: Control, Access, Sharing, and Education

Loyola University Libraries presents an Open Access Week keynote by Kenneth Crews, Director of the Copyright Advistory Office at Columbia University Libraries. For more details, please follow the link above. 

 

 

ABOUT

 

What is open access?

Open access is a form of publishing. Open access publications are online, free to readers, and do not have as many copyright restrictions on their use as traditional publications.

 

What are the advantages of open access publishing?

• Because of their online format, open access publications are generally produced faster than print publications.

• Anyone can read an open access publication anywhere, anytime, for free.

• The author of an open access work retains copyright to that work.

• Open access publications generally receive higher visibility than traditional publications because they are under fewer financial and copyright constraints.

 

Are open access publications peer-reviewed?

Many, though not all, open access publications are peer reviewed. Authors should always check with the journal publisher.

 

How is open access publishing funded?

Open access publishing is funded in a number of ways, such as foundation grants, individual gifts, annual institutional memberships, article processing and author page charges, tax payer support, and in some cases a combination of several of these means. Faculty and students can designate amounts from research grants to cover relevant publication fees.

 

Why does Northwestern University Library encourage open access publishing?

Northwestern University Library encourages open access publishing because open access fosters genuinely open, free, and timely communication among scholars more effectively than traditional publishing methods.

 

Is an open access work protected by copyright?

Yes. An author can retain any or all copyrights (reproduce, distribute, publicly display and perform work) in his or her work in an open access publication, by using a Creative Commons license or negotiating rights directly with the publisher.

 

What fields do open access works cover?

The science and engineering fields were the earliest adopters of open access publishing and the number of open access publications in those fields continues to grow steadily. Open access is also steadily growing in the social sciences and humanities.

 

 

RESOURCES

Open Access Overview
An introduction, by Peter Suber, to open access for those who are new to the concept.

Directory of Open Access Journals
A directory of thousands of open access scientific and scholarly journals.

Right to Research Coalition
A coalition promoting for policies at the campus and national level that promote open access.

Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
An international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system. 

Public Library of Science
An open access publisher accelerating progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. 

NIH Public Access Policy
Ensuring that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. 

Open Humanities Press
An open access publisher of humanities monographs. 

SHERPA/RoMEO
A directory of scholarly publisher copyright and self-archiving policies. 

Creative Commons
Develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity and sharing.

  

QUOTES

For Open Access Week 2012, the Center for Scholarly Communication distributed postcards, posters, and handouts across campus which contained several quotes on the theme of open access. Below are these quotes and their citations. You can also download these materials below.

"There's no question, open access truly expands shared knowledge across scientific fields—it is the best path for accelerating multi-disciplinary breakthroughs in research." — An open letter to the U.S. Congress signed by 25 Nobel Prize winners

"Our new open access policy is the natural evolution for a World Bank that is opening up more and more." — Robert B. Zoellick, World Bank Group President

"The future of scholarly publishing lies in open access. Scholars in the future [should make] the products of their research as widely available as possible, to people throughout the world." — Jonathan Culler, Professor of English, Cornell University

MORE

For more information on open access, please contact the Center for Scholarly Communication & Digital Curation at cscdc@northwestern.edu.