Open Access

Open Access Week

Help us to celebrate Open Access during this annual international event

What is Open Access Week?

International Open Access Week is an annual event celebrating the benefits of Open Access, where the outcomes of research are made freely available online for others to reuse. You can find more information about Open Access in our guide on the basics of Open Access.

Open Access Week started with the first "Open Access Day" held in 2007, organised by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) in the USA. Since then, it has grown to be an entire week that is celebrated across the world. You can find more information on the history and purpose of Open Access Week on the SPARC website or on the Open Access Week event website.

What are we doing this year?

Open Access Week 2024 is running from Monday 21st through Friday 25th October. Each year, SPARC set an overall theme for Open Access Week, which invites people to think about a specific aspect of Open Access. The theme for 2024 has been carried over from 2023: "Community over Commercialisation".

This theme encourages us to think specifically about scholarship as a community activity, involving many researchers, participants, audiences and beneficiaries worldwide. Moreover, it highlights the tension between the benefits of Open Access and the commercial interests of various stakeholders - most notably academic publishers.

First titles from Scottish Universities Press

Scottish Universities Press (SUP) are an open access book publisher co-funded by libraries across Scotland - including RGU Library. After a few years of development, they are now publishing their first title on Tuesday 22nd October to coincide with Open Access Week! The first title is Conversations with Tim Ingold: Anthropology, Education and Life, by Tim Ingold, Robert Gibb, Philip Tonner and Diego Maria Malara. A second title - Digital Editing and Publishing in the Twenty-First Century - is due to follow later in the month.

You can find out more about both books on the SUP website and you can also sign up for a book launch webinar due to take place on Thursday 24th October at 11am. Additionally, please look out for a display in the RGU Library reception area on level 5 of the Sir Ian Wood Building, where free bookmarks and flyers will be available to celebrate the book launch - and where you'll also be able to look at the physical copy of the first book once it has arrived!

Learning through play: The Publishing Trap

As part of Open Access Week we are running a games-based training session on Tuesday 22nd October, from 10am to 12pm. We will be playing The Publishing Trap, which was originally created by UK Copyright Literacy, and which covers topics that range from copyright and Open Access through to book publishing, research data and impact. While this session is aimed primarily at postgraduate students and early career researchers, all are welcome. Places are limited and registration is essential.

And in case you missed it...

We produced a variety of minigames and puzzles for Open Access Week 2021. These are still available, if you'd like to give them a go!

If you have any questions or would like to talk more with us about Open Access and other related topics, just get in touch.