What is International Open Access Week?
Open Access Week is an annual event, now twelve years old, focusing on scholarly communications, open access and related issues. Founded by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) in 2007 it originated as one day event in collaboration with students across American university campuses. It has since expanded into a week long celebration of the open access agenda with events taking place globally and supported by academic institutions, funding agencies and social research groups.
2019 International Open Access Week theme
As open access increases in importance globally, the theme for 2019 Open Access Week is “Open for Whom? Equity in Knowledge,” seeking to address the issue of groups who have been excluded, or underrepresented, in the bid to make scholarly research as free and open as possible.
How has City supported open access to research?
Since 2011 City has been supporting open access to research through making its academic research publications openly available in City Research Online (CRO). As open access has gained prominence within Higher Education institutions the number of publications avaiable in CRO has been inceasing year on year. We have been providing access to publications that are locked behind publisher paywalls. and inaccessible to those who cannot afford the subscription costs.
City Research Online (CRO) statistics
Activity within CRO suggests that it is being widely accessed for City publications across the world, highlighting the importance of making research freely available at the point of access and
- Number of research items in CRO: 15, 005
- Total number of downloads: 3, 998, 021
- Number of PhD theses held in CRO: 1,869
- Number of countries accessing CRO: Approximately 130
If you would like to browse the range of City publications we have made openlyavailable visit City Research Online today.
If you are a researcher and would like to increase the visibility of your work as well as expand City’s archive of research, contact the Publications Team who can help you upload your papers. Alternatively, visit our Publications Database guidance on adding publications.
What are we doing for Open Access Week?
The publications team at City Library will be posting short blogposts each day this week covering an aspect of open access publications. You can also find out more information about open access, such as how to find open access content and a timeline of significant events in the open access movement, in our display on Level 2 of the library.
