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Established by SPARC and partners in the student community in 2008, International Open Access Week is happening worldwide between 21 and 27 October 2019 with the theme:

Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge 

The Office of Scholarly Communication prepared various activities to mark this year’s theme during the celebratory week which you can explore in this page.

OA Week 2019 blog series

Image showing the title: "Unlocking Research, University of Cambridge Office of Scholarly Communication"

Searching Open Access: steps towards improving discovery of OA in a less than 100% OA world"

To launch our Open Access Week 2019 series of blogs, James Caudwell, Deputy Head of Periodicals & Electronic Subscriptions Manager, discusses the steps being taken to improve the discovery of open access content at Cambridge University Library 

“Open Research at the University of Cambridge: What have we done so far?”

In our Unlocking Research blog, Dr Lauren Cadwallader writes about the current plans for making research at the University of Cambridge more open since the University’s Position Statement in Open Research at the start of 2019. 

"Open Access monographs: Reflections from our recent symposium"

Earlier this month the OSC organised a one-day symposium “Open Access Monographs: from policy to reality”. Dr Lauren Cadwallader and Maria Angelaki have been reflecting on the key themes and messages that emerged as a result of the discussions. 

"Opening Up the Research Support Ambassadors"

The Office of Scholarly Communication is pleased to announce the launch of our popular Research Support Ambassador Programme as an open educational resource. Claire Sewell discusses this initiative which has been running in Cambridge Libraries since 2015 and its transition to becoming an open resource for all library staff interested in the fundamentals of scholarly communication and research support.

"Chasing cash cows in a swamp? Perspectives on Plan S from Australia and the USA"

We look East and West to find out how Plan S is being received across the globe. Dr Danny Kingsley explores how reliance on foreign students has trapped Australian universities in a ‘Faustian bargain’ with publishers and reduced the scope for change. Micah Vandegrift reports on the type of conversations that Plan S has inspired in the USA, as well as the potential political barriers, sounding a note of cautious optimism. 

"Image copyright and Open Access in the Arts and Humanities"

Our colleague Dr Lorraine de la Verpillière explores the complexities in the debate around third-party image copyright and the challenges it poses for open access publishing in the Arts and Humanities.

"Embarking on a career in open access"

If you’re interested in starting a career in open access or just want to know a little more about the day-to-day work we do, then read our blog written by two of the newest members of the team where they discuss their experiences starting out in open access. Lorraine de la Verpillière and Olivia Marsh share their differing perspectives coming from backgrounds in academia and publishing, respectively.

 

OA Week 2019 resources

Research support handy guides and three minutes research support videos

Welcome to Open Access Week 2019! We have a range of support material to help with every stage of the research process. In our Research Support Handy Guides we cover topics from creating data management plans to promoting your research. If you want an easily digestible overview of developments in scholarly communication, including Plan S and open access, our Handy Guides outline the facts and implications to save you wading through policy. We have also created a range of 3-minute videos which outline key aspects of the research process covering topics such as peer review, Creative Commons Licenses and responsible metrics, to name but a few!

OSC Webinars

Over the last few months we have been offering monthly webinars aimed at librarians and research support staff. These Wednesday Webinars cover a range of topics from copyright to Plan S and recordings/slides/handouts are all available under a CC-BY licence. Reuse is encouraged – we already know that they have made it as far as Europe and the US!   

Launch of the Research Support Ambassador Programme as an open educational resource

The Office of Scholarly Communication is pleased to announce the launch of our popular Research Support Ambassador Programme as an open educational resource. Covering topics at every stage of the research lifecycle from data management to copyright, this fully flexible resource is designed to give learners either an introduction or refresher on key elements of research support.

OSC Podcasts

We are delighted to share with you our podcasts which have been created in the last few months by our colleague Claire Sewell and are primarily aimed at librarians and research support staff. They cover a range of current scholarly communication topics and can be used as a companion to our webinar series or independently. Topics cover open access, metrics, data management, publication and copyright and include podcasts such as:

 

OA Week 2019 event activities

Image promoting the "Open Access Monographs: from policy to reality" symposium featured in this section

Open Access Monographs: from policy to reality

Earlier this month the OSC organised a one-day symposium on “Open Access Monographs: from policy to reality” which took place at St Catharine’s College. Keynote speakers included Professor Martin Paul Eve (Birkbeck, University of London) and Professor Margot Finn (President of the Royal Historical Society) with panel discussions featuring representatives from Research England, The Wellcome Trust, academic experts on the subject and representatives from various publishing houses. For those who were not able to attend, most of the presentations and all recordings are now available in the University’s institutional repository, Apollo. The recordings are also featured in the OSC YouTube channel.

Planning for Plan S: a perspective from across the pond

The principles of Plan S are set to change what funders require from researchers, placing a much greater emphasis on immediate Open Access and other open practices. While we've been busy preparing here in the UK, our colleagues in the US have not been idle. Micah Vandegrift is the Open Knowledge Librarian at NC State University Libraries, where he works on community-building and advocating for Open Research. Micah shared his perspective on the likely impact of Plan S on libraries, publishers, researchers and repositories.

Open Research Newsletter sign-up

Please contact us at info@osc.cam.ac.uk to be added to the mailing list to receive our quarterly e-Newsletter.

The Office of Scholarly Communication sends this Newsletter to its subscribers in order to disseminate information relevant to open access, research data management, scholarly communication and open research topics. For details on how the personal information you enter here is used, please see our privacy policy