In conjunction with this year’s Open Access Week Advisory Committee, SPARC today announces the theme for this year’s 9th International Open Access Week, to be held October 24-30, will be “Open in Action.”

International Open Access Week has always been about action, and this year’s theme encourages all stakeholders to take concrete steps to make their own work more openly available and encourage others to do the same. From posting pre-prints in a repository to supporting colleagues in making their work more accessible, this year’s Open Access Week will focus on moving from discussion to action in opening up our system for communicating research.

Established by SPARC and partners in the student community in 2008, International Open Access Week is an opportunity to take action in making openness the default for research—to raise the visibility of scholarship, accelerate research, and turn breakthroughs into better lives. This year’s Open Access Week will be held from October 24th through the 30th; however, those celebrating the week are encouraged to schedule local events whenever is most suitable during the year.

The “Open in Action” theme will also highlight the researchers, librarians, students, and others who have made a commitment to working in the open and how that decision has benefitted them—from researchers just starting their careers to those at the top of their field.

“As Open Access becomes a more and more familiar concept, we must focus on the small steps everyone can take to make openness in research a reality,” said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC. “This year’s theme will help showcase these actions, the individuals who are leading by example, and the ways this openness advances science and scholarship.”

Last year’s “Open for Collaboration” theme highlighted both the power of Open Access to enable better collaboration within the research community and the ways the Open Access movement itself is driven by collaboration. This theme of collaboration was embodied by last year’s global Wikipedia Edit-a-thon that improved content related to Open Access across the world’s largest open resource.

International Open Access Week is a global, community-driven week of action to open up access to research. The event is celebrated by individuals, institutions and organizations across the world.  For more information about International Open Access Week, please visit www.openaccessweek.org.

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About SPARC

SPARC®, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is a global coalition committed to making Open the default for research and education. SPARC empowers people to solve big problems and make new discoveries through the adoption of policies and practices that advance Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education. Learn more at sparcopen.org.