For immediate release
October 4, 2010
For more information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
(202) 296-2296
jennifer [at] arl [ dot] org
Leading scientists will be featured in Open Access Week kick-off event
Pioneering Open Access advocate Harold Varmus to keynote
Washington, DC – SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition) has announced top international researchers will champion the
importance of Open Access for advancing research at an online event to launch
this year’s Open Access Week (October 18 – 24, 2010).
Nobel Prize-winning scientist and Director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute
Dr. Harold Varmus will offer welcoming remarks. Varmus, a long-time champion,
has been an unparalleled leader in promoting Open Access in a succession of key
roles – from introducing the topic of wider access and launching PubMed Central
to increase public access to the literature as the Director of the National
Institutes of Health, to helping to found the Public Library of Science, one of
the world’s leading open-access publishers.
Varmus will be joined by Dr. Cameron Neylon, a Senior Scientist at the UK
Science and Technology Facilities Council, biochemist, and author of the widely
read “Science in the Open” blog. Neylon will highlight the kinds of scientific
advances Open Access can facilitate, and discuss current examples along with
future opportunities. A host of leading researchers from around the globe will
also add their voices to the event.
Open Access Week, a global event now entering its fourth year, is an opportunity
for the academic and research community to learn about the potential benefits of
Open Access (OA), to share ideas with colleagues, and to inspire wider
participation in establishing Open Access as a new norm in scholarship and
research. Hundreds of participating sites – including research funding agencies,
academic institutions, and other organizations – in over 60 countries are using
OA Week as a valuable chance to connect local action with global momentum. In
2009, the 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.
To accommodate interest in every time zone, this short (15- to 20-minute) event
will be prerecorded and available under embargo on October 14. Public release
will take place Monday, October 18 at 9:00AM Eastern. Request an embargoed copy
at
http://sparc.arl.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=34.
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), Lucy Browse (INASP), 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), Astrid van
Wesenbeeck (SPARC Europe), 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
jennifer_at_arl.org
(202) 296-2296 x121
Fax: (202) 872-0884
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jennifer-mclennan/6/828/9b5
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SPARC 2010 Digital Repositories Meeting
November 8 & 9 - Baltimore, MD
http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/09-0223.shtml
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Open Access Week 2010
October 18 - 24. Everywhere.
http://www.openaccessweek.org
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http://www.arl.org/sparc
Received on Mon Oct 04 2010 - 21:31:57 BST