For immediate release
October 19, 2009
For more information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
(202) 631-8854
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org
OPEN ACCESS WEEK BEGINS
First international awareness week for free, immediate, online access
to scholarly research draws widespread global participation
WASHINGTON, DC – Today marks the beginning of the first-ever
international awareness week for Open Access to research, October 19 –
23, 2009. Hundreds of leading academic and research sites in over 30
countries will mark the week in unique ways, and express their support
for the advancement of knowledge through free, immediate, online
access to the results of scholarly research.
Open Access Week is designed to help raise awareness of the potential
benefits of Open Access to research and to celebrate milestones in
making Open Access a norm in the conduct of science and scholarship.
Momentum for the incorporation of openness into the fabric of science
and scholarship has been steadily growing, as evidenced by the growing
number of policies from public and private research funders (including
the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest biomedical
research funder) and research producers on college and university
campuses (including Harvard University, MIT, University College
London, the University of Kansas, and the University of Liege).
The momentum is also evident as research institutions, advocacy
organizations, and others around the world will participate in the
week and demonstrate the wide relevance of Open Access across
disciplines and across constituencies. Activities include:
• October 20 - The founder of the Worldwide Web, Tim Berners Lee, will
receive an honorary doctorate from VU University Amsterdam. Dutch
institutions will host special lectures, discussions, and symposia to
inform researchers, teachers, and students about the advantages of
Open Access and about how they can benefit and contribute. The higher
education sector hopes that by providing examples and practical help,
it can inspire present and future researchers to take advantage of the
Web’s power to communicate science and scholarship. (
http://www.surffoundation.nl/en/actueel/Pages/NederlanddoetmeeaanOpenAccessWeek2009.aspx
)
• October 22 - The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
will host an in-depth discussion on the potential impact of Open
Access on research, featuring George Strawn, Chief Information Officer
of the National Science Foundation. NCAR researchers shared the 2007
Nobel Peace Prize with Vice President Al Gore, which was awarded for
the work of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
This weekend, NCAR announced it has adopted an Open Access policy that
requires all peer-reviewed research published by its scientists and
staff in scientific journals be made publicly available online through
its institutional repository. The policy supports broader access to
the cutting-edge research conducted at NCAR, covering climate,
weather, air quality, and other areas vital to society and the
environment. (
http://www.openaccessweek.org/2009/10/06/open-access-day-at-university-corporation-for-atmospheric-research-ucar-october-22/
)
• The Committee on Economic Development, which is dedicated to policy
research on major economic and social issues and represents senior
corporate executives and university leaders, will soon release a new
report entitled, “Harnessing openness to improve research, teaching
and learning in higher education.” The report analyzes how the
institutions and processes of higher education can benefit from the
application of greater openness through digital technologies. In
conjunction with Open Access Week, CED is pleased to make a pre-
publication draft available to the SPARC community. Formal
announcement and publication of this report should take place later
this month. (
http://www.arl.org/sparc/bm~doc/dcc_opennessedu_10-19.pdf)
• October 19 - One of the first open-access journals, which was
launched in 2004 and quickly rose to become one the top-ranked
journals in medicine – PLoS Medicine – will celebrate its fifth
birthday. (
http://www.openaccessweek.org/2009/09/16/pm-anniversary/)
• Also this weekend, the University of Salford in the UK announced the
world’s 100th open-access mandate, indicating plans to implement a
mandatory policy for all research active staff to deposit research
information into its digital repository. (
https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/5188.html
)
• Sixty institutions in Germany will participate in Open Access Week
activities, in conjunction with the Alliance of National Science
Organisations. Johannes Fournier of the German Research Foundation
(DFG) formulated the goal of Open Access week, saying, "The individual
institutions at local level are the best places to stimulate a
discussion about Open Access. In this way, scientists and scholars can
be addressed directly in their research environment." (
http://open-access.net/de_en/activities/international_open_access_week/activities_2009/
)
• October 19 - McGill University in Quebec will host a free screening
of the National Film Board of Canada's "RiP: Remix," a video
exploration of creative reuse of materials with Web activist Brett
Gaylor and musician Greg Gillis. The film has been an Official
Selection at six international film festivals as well as the closing
film at Docs Barcelona and named among Canada’s top 20 at the Victoria
film festival. (
http://www.mcgill.ca/library/library-findinfo/escholarship/openaccess/
)
• In Japan, there will be a week of events and activities highlighting
the power of Open Access to advance, coordinated through a
comprehensive Japanese-language Web resource at
http://www.openaccessweek.jp/
.
• October 19 - An Open Access Week event at the European Institute for
Marine Sciences in Brest, France will offer the next generation of
earth scientists practical advice on what Open Access can do to boost
their early careers. The event is endorsed by the EUR-OCEANS
Consortium. (
http://www.openaccessweek.org/2009/09/22/waving-oa-carrots-at-earth-scientists/
)
• The Marine Biological Laboratory of Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute continues to make Open Access a priority, using Open Access
Week as an occasion to highlight its programs to support author rights
retention and digital repository. (
http://www.whoi.edu/headlines.do)
For more information on these events, or to find activities in your
region, visit
http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Events_celebrating_Open_Access_Week
.
“We’re impressed and thrilled by the level of participation in Open
Access Week 2009,” said Jennifer McLennan, Communications Director of
SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition).
“The commitment to opening access to research results, which we’re
seeing grow on a global scale, is a sure sign that we’re not far away
from bringing the full power of the Web to bear on advancing research,
discovery, and innovation.”
“We’d like to express our deep thanks,” McLennan added, “to everyone
making this week possible, including our fellow organizers, partners,
and event coordinators everywhere.” SPARC has issued a video letter
and welcome to Open Access Week 2009, online at
http://www.vimeo.com/7048906
.
Open Access Week is organized by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and
Academic Resources Coalition), the Public Library of Science, Students
for Free Culture, eIFL, OASIS, Open Access Directory, JISC, and SURF.
Promotional partners include SPARC Europe, SPARC Japan, Directory of
Open Access Journals (Sweden), Open Access Scholarly Publishers
Association (UK), SciELO-FAPESP-BIREME (Brazil), The Open Society
Institute (New York & Budapest), SURF (The Netherlands), Open-
access.net (Germany), The Public Knowledge Project (Canada), My Open
Archive (Japan), DuraSpace (US), IssueLabs (US). For more information,
visit
http://www.openaccessweek.org.
#
About 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’s advocacy, educational, and
publisher partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of
research. Membership in SPARC is open to academic and research
libraries of all sizes, which share interest in advancing scholarship
through broadening access to research. SPARC is on the Web at
http://www.arl.org/sparc
.
-------------------------------------
Jennifer McLennan
Director of Communications
SPARC
jennifer_at_arl.org
(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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Received on Mon Oct 19 2009 - 16:40:28 BST