Access to scientific results, transparent peer-review processes and ever increasing journal subscription costs are topics covered at nearly every bibliothecary meeting around the world. Subscription costs have increased about 400% over the last 20 years. To provide students and scientists with scientific journals and publications, more and more libraries have to reduce the number of subscriptions to a minimum, leaving publications from neighbouring disciplines aside. Another key issue is the ongoing discussion on reforming the peer-review process. Finding reviewers and keeping timelines for reviews is difficult in itself, but confronted with harsh critique by science skepticisms and know-it-alls, fewer scientists are willing to spent their time reviewing articles and submissions. Also, publicly funded science is facing the problem of accessibility to research results.
Open access and its core principles might provide a solution to some of these pressing problems.
To discuss the possibilities within open access, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) have organised the Open Access Week 18th – 24th October 2010. In more than 90 countries, students, scientists, librarians and faculty will participate in events to support the open access idea.
For more details, look at the Open Access Week web pages or contact your librarian.
Featured image credit: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 by biblioteekje
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