Higher education sector organises workshops during International Open Access Week.

Utrecht, 7 October 2010 – In the week from 11 to 15 October, the Netherlands will be bringing the benefits of Open Access to the attention of universities and research institutions by means of seminars, workshops, lectures and film clips. SURF is coordinating the Dutch Open Access week. The programme can be found at www.openaccess.nl. The Dutch event is part of International Open Access Week, which involves sixty countries worldwide. Researchers will be able to see how Open Access publishing offers advantages for them and for their institution, and how publications can be made available in the institution’s repository.

Available for everyone
“For science and scholarship, Open Access publishing is an imperative business model,” says Jos Engelen, chairman of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). “You’re wasting your time if you try to stop it.” Prof. Henk Schmidt, rector magnificus of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), agrees, saying that Open Access publishing is of major importance for science and scholarship. At the opening of the 2010–2011 academic year, Prof. Schmidt announced that from 2011 all publications by EUR and the Erasmus Medical Centre will be uploaded to the online Repub database, making them available to everyone.

Open Access means material can be traced.

A study by Amsterdam University Press has shown that books that are published by means of Open Access are far easier to trace than those that are not. The study of the effects of OA and the distribution channel, which looked at four hundred book titles, showed that authors benefit directly from their publications because they distribute their ideas among the maximum number of readers, helping to build their reputation. University presses also benefit from OA as an efficient way of distributing scientific and scholarly knowledge.

Open Access promoted from all sides

Amsterdam University Press and SURF are collaborating on the new OAPEN-NL project (Open Access Publishing in European Networks). This involves researchers gaining experience of Open Access book publication and collecting data on the effect of Open Access availability. The NWO is also collaborating by making a financial contribution.

Videos

SURF has published a number of short video films about OA publishing, for example one by dr. Arianna Betti of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She explains how she uses Open Access publications in her daily work and how Open Access can speed up research and increase collaboration between scholars. More video's will be available during the Open Access week.

This press release is availale on the Dutch Open Access website.

The Dutch version of this press release can be found on the website of SURFfoundation.