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?
Each year, SPARC set an overall theme for Open Access Week, which invites people to think about a specific aspect of Open Access. For 2019 the theme was "Open for whom? Equity in open knowledge", which asked us to reflect on how inclusive and equitable Open Access really is.
In 2019, we celebrated Open Access Week with a series of special blog posts from Monday to Friday:
We also toured around the campus at lunchtimes during the week with our pop-up stand, where we spoke to people about Open Access and also offered free food to help celebrate the occasion! For the details of where we were and when, see the table below:
| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 21st October 2019 | 11:45-13:15 | Gray's School of Art, near the shop |
| Tuesday 22nd October 2019 | 11:45-13:15 | Garthdee House Annex, near the main entrance |
| Wednesday 23rd October 2019 | 11:45-13:15 | Aberdeen Business School, in the atrium |
| Thursday 24th October 2019 | 11:45-13:15 | Ishbel Gordon Building, near the main entrance |
| Friday 25th October 2019 | 11:45-13:15 | Sir Ian Wood Building, near the main entrace |