View the schedule for USU's 2011 Open Access Week
Great! But what exactly is Open Access?
Open Access is:
- Free, unrestricted access to research
- The insistence that authors retain copyright in their scholarly publications
- Democratizing information--making scholarly publications freely accessible to those who cannot afford pricey journal subscriptions, with the aim of further advancing knowledge
- The belief that research, especially research funded by taxpayer dollars should be made available to the public without charge
- Most of all, Open Access is a solution to the scholarly communication crisis. Journal prices have skyrocketed in recent years, some as high as five times the rate of inflation! As a result, many libraries cannot afford subscriptions to the journals you need to research effectively.
For more information, check out this brief SPARC video on the crisis in scholarly communications. Also, be sure to mark our schedule of International Open Access Week events taking place right here at USU in your calendar today.
Open Access 101, from SPARC from Karen Rustad on Vimeo.