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.