What are you doing for Open Access Week?
Next week is Open Access Week – a global event that promotes the open access publication of academic research.
The week offers participants a great opportunity to learn more about the open access movement and the benefits of publishing work through open access channels.
Here at CiteAb we’re really interested in open access publishing and specifically the opportunities it offers for furthering scientific research.
We have had some fantastic conversations with the journals and publishers who are making open access publishing in the sciences a reality, and have learnt so much along the way. We initially did a whistle-stop tour of the open access movement, and have since interviewed journals PeerJ, F1000, and eLife, about their inner workings, review processes and objectives.
There are lots of events taking place all over the world during Open Access Week. Here in our home city, the University of Bath is running an event on open access innovations in publishing which we’re looking forward to attending.
How can you get involved in Open Access Week?
Start by having a look at the event website, which details every registered open access event taking place around the world. It is worth looking at the groups to identify whether there is a group for your country, and to make it easy to find a relevant event.
If you can’t attend or run an event in your area, you can still join in the conversation online. There is a forum on the event website which already has a number of interesting discussions taking place. There is also an official hashtag – #oaweek – which will allow you to follow discussion on Twitter and Facebook.
There are a number of really active online communities that discuss issue related to open access publishing. Try this community on Google+, this group on LinkedIn or this page on Facebook to get you started.
This is also a good time to approach your own institution’s library and to ask what they are doing to support researchers in moving to an open access model for getting their research published. Most university libraries have some form of open access policy, and should be able to give you information on good quality open access journals in your sector.
We’d love to hear if you’re running or attending an event for open access week, and more about what your institution is do to encourage open access publishing. Does your university have an open access policy? Have you published your work in an open access journal and what has your experience been? Comment below, or tweet us (@CiteAb) – we’d love to hear from you.
– Matt and the CiteAb team
