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.