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 will happen 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. This year's theme is "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 year's theme therefore seeks to highlight how Open Access can help to foster connections between researchers and climate activists.
In 2020 and 2021, we were unable to undertake any in-person activity due to the pandemic. However, we are hoping to run our pop-up stand again in 2022, which will appear at various locations on campus over the course of the week and provide an opportunity for people to talk with us about Open Access at RGU.
We are also planning a special series of blog posts for the week, which will feature contributions from researchers across the University.
In addition, the minigames and puzzles that we produced last year 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.