Resource of the Week #133: It’s Open Access Week!

Hello again. As you may know, it’s now Open Access Week—a global event promoting free online access to results of scholarly research.  

Perhaps your institution has activities for Open Access Week. Even if it doesn’t, you can observe the week online, at the Open Access Week website. This website has handouts, blog posts, videos, and more. Some materials are in languages other than English.

Writings for Open Access Week include the blog post “Open Access: Six Myths to Put to Rest”. This post appeared Monday in the Guardian Higher Education Network. It is by Peter Suber, a leader in the open-access field.

The myths that Suber refutes are as follows:

1. “The only way to provide open access to peer-reviewed journal articles is to publish in open access journals.”
2. “All or most open access journals charge publication fees.”
3. “Most author-side fees are paid by the authors themselves.”
4. “Publishing in a conventional journal closes the door on making the same work open access.”
5. “Open access journals are intrinsically low in quality.”
6. “Open access mandates infringe academic freedom.”

I encourage you to read Suber’s discussion of why these statements are incorrect.

Happy Open Access Week!