Open Access Week
Organizers get ready to speak to students and researchers at Open Access Week in Estonia Photo credit: Henri Kirs/Tartu Ülikool
Organizers get ready to speak to students and researchers at Open Access Week in Estonia Photo credit: Henri Kirs/Tartu Ülikool

International Open Access Week is a global, community-driven week of action to open up access to research. It was established by SPARC and partners (including EIFL) in the student community in 2008. The week is an opportunity to take action in making openness the default for research — to raise the visibility of scholarship, accelerate research, and turn breakthroughs into better lives. The event is celebrated by individuals, institutions and organizations across the world, and its organization is led by a global advisory committee. 

Universities, colleges, research institutes, funding agencies, libraries, and think tanks have all used Open Access Week as a platform to discuss Open Access policies, Open Science infrastructures, and more. The EIFL Open Access Programme is on the advisory committee, encourages libraries across the EIFL network to take part in Open Access Week, and helps them prepare for this exciting global event. The official hashtag of OA Week is #OAweek. 

 

For me, open access means providing an enabling environment for research to take place anywhere in the world without any barriers to scholarly information.

- Gloria Kadyamatimba, University Librarian at Chinhoyi University of Technology

FACTS

1

EIFL partner countries host advocacy and awareness-raising workshops during Open Access Week.

2

Open Access Week is organized by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) with advice from programme advisors. Open Access Programme Manager Iryna Kuchma is a member of the OA Week Advisory Committee.