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. Open Access Week 2021 happened between the 25th and 31st October, and the theme was "It matters how we open knowledge: building structural equity". This theme aligns with the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, and encourages people to think about how we can facilitate equitability for all producers and consumers of knowledge.
Although we did not run any live events in 2021, we were delighted to produce a special series of blog posts over the course of the week, on the Library Matters and Research Matters blogs. Each post discussed a particular topic related to open research. Links to these posts are provided below:
- Monday's Blog Post: Refresher on Open Access
- Tuesday's Blog Post: Practice-Based Research
- Wednesday's Blog Post: Research Data
- Thursday's Blog Post: Journal Hosting
- Friday's Blog Post: OpenAIR@RGU Monthly Update No.58 + New UKRI Open Access Policy
In addition, we also produced a handful of minigames and puzzles - ideal entertainment for a coffee break! A new game was linked in each blog post, but separate links to all of the games are provided below:
- 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 feedback or would like to talk more with us about Open Access and other related topics, just get in touch by contacting the Publications Team.