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 2022 happened between the 24th and 30th 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 2022 was "Open for Climate Justice". The concept of climate justice is the acknowledgement that the effects of climate change are both far-reaching and experienced unequally. Similar inequalities also affect the abilities of both communities and individuals when it comes to dissemination, access and use of research-based knowledge around the climate crisis. Openness can help to make knowledge exchange more equitable. This theme therefore sought to highlight how Open Access can help to foster connections between researchers and climate activists.
In 2022 we ran a pop-up stand, which appeared at various locations across campus. At our stand, visitors had the opportunity to learn more about Open Access and to try our "Open Research Challenge", which was based on the Happy Puzzle Company's "Genius Square" - reflavoured as a challenge of using open research practices to overcome the barriers to undertaking high quality and impactful research.
We also issued a special series of blog posts over the course of the week, which featured contributions from researchers and staff across the University:
- Monday's blog post: Welcome to "International Open Access Week 2022"!
- Tuesday's blog post: Science, Technology and the Environment
- Wednesday's blog post: Finance, Law and the Environment
- Thursday's blog post: Construction, Art and the Environment
- Friday's blog post: Opening Access to Physical Collections
In addition, the minigames and puzzles that we produced during 2021 are still available, if anyone wants to give them a go!
- RGU Open Access Crossword
- Memory: Open Research at RGU
- RGU Open Access Matching Pairs
- Label the Benefits of Open Access
- RGU Open Access Scavenger Hunt
If you have any questions or would like to talk more with us about Open Access and other related topics, just get in touch.