Published: Oct. 16, 2017

open locks digital image

The 10th annual International Open Access Week will be October 23 – 29, 2017. The University Libraries have put together an exciting series of events to celebrate the free and open sharing of research and ideas online, to share the benefits of open access, and to inspire wider participation in helping to make open access the norm.

The theme of Open Access Week 2017 is “Open in Order To...," which emphasizes the benefits of open access for researchers, students, and the public. In keeping with that theme, each of these events addresses one or more of the benefits of being “open,” which includes but is not limited to: helping to close divides, fostering innovation, enhancing your reputation, and finding sustainable solutions.

What is open access?

Open access (OA) is a way of publishing your research online that enables it to be freely accessible to the public and usually has limited, and sometimes zero, copyright restrictions. The OA model of publishing is a better fit for the collaborative and technology-driven digital age. While the OA model of publishing is an exciting and dynamic area of inquiry and practice, it is also an established and respected mode of scholarship that has been around for nearly 30 years and almost always includes peer review by discipline experts. Open access has many benefits for students and researchers, as well as the public. It increases the ability of anyone to find, use, and distribute knowledge, alleviates some cost burdens, and enables innovation and cross-collaboration. Publishing open access has also been shown to increase citations for journal articles. Learn how the libraries support open access, and how being “open” can benefit you at open access research assistance.

We hope you can join us for one or more of these events that will explore some of the interesting trends and practical implications of open scholarship.