Open Access Week at Harvard, October 22 - 28, 2012

October 22, 2012 marked the beginning of Open Access Week 2012, a six-day celebration and reflection on the global movement to promote “the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need.” Sponsored by the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), Open Access Week, now in its sixth year, makes up a week of presentations, seminars, and workshops on topics related to Open Access at universities, research institutes, funding agencies, libraries, and other institutions across the world.

In celebration of Open Access Week, Harvard community members hosted a number of events on campus and in the Greater Boston area. Harvard is home to the Harvard Open Access Project (HOAP), a project launched in 2011 to foster OA within and beyond Harvard, and to undertake research and policy analysis on OA for the benefit of all. Harvard’s Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC), which spearheads campus-wide initiatives to open, share and preserve scholarship, is co-sponsoring events (some alongside the Berkman Center for Internet & Society) in honor of Open Access Week.

Open Access Week 2012 Events

Monday, October 22 (6:00 PM EST): “Peter Suber and Robin Peek: A Conversation With Students”

Join Dr. Peter Suber (Harvard Open Access Project) and Dr. Robin Peek (associate professor, Simmons College) for a student-centered discussion about open access. RSVP via web page to attend in person or online via webinar. The event, “Peter Suber and Robin Peek: A Conversation With Students,” will take place at Simmons College in Lefavour Hall, Kotzken room (L-001), from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

Tuesday, October 23 (12:30 PM EST): “How to Make Your Research Open Access (Whether You’re at Harvard or Not)”

On October 23rd at 12:30 p.m., the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Office for Scholarly Communication will host a forum entitled “How to Make Your Research Open Access (Whether You’re at Harvard or Not).” OA advocates Peter Suber and Stuart Shieber will headline the session, answering questions on any aspect of open access and recommending concrete steps for making your work open access. The Berkman Center will stream the discussion live online. See the Berkman Center website for more information and to RSVP.

Wednesday, October 24 (12:00 PM EST): “Open Access to Health Research: Future Directions for the NIH Public Access Policy”

On October 24, a panel of experts will consider efforts by the National Institutes of Health to ensure public access to the published results of federally funded research. “Open Access to Health Research: Future Directions for the NIH Public Access Policy” will feature a discussion of the challenges and opportunities for increasing compliance with the NIH policy. The event, co-sponsored by the Office for Scholarly Communication, Right to Research Coalition, and Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, will be held at the Harvard Law School in Hauser Hall, room 104. More information is available at the Petrie-Flom Center website.

Wednesday, October 24 (4:00 PM EST): “Open Access: A Conversation with Peter Suber and Richard Holton”

Panelists will respond to questions about open access and its importance for scholarship and research at MIT and beyond. Co-sponsored by MIT Libraries and MIT Press, “Open Access: A Conversation with Peter Suber and Richard Holton” will be moderated by Ann Wolpert, Director of MIT Libraries, and will include Peter Suber, Open Access author and Director of the Harvard Open Access Project (HOAP), and Richard Holton, MIT Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Faculty Open Access Working Group. The event will take place at MIT, Room E25-111, from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

Not located in the Greater Boston area? You can find a comprehensive list of Open Access Week events taking place across the globe here.

Additional Open Access Resources

In advance of Open Access Week, the Harvard Open Access Project released version 1.0 of a guide to good practices for university open-access policies. Read the full announcement here. You can keep track of these and other announcements related to the Harvard Open Access Project by subscribing to the HOAP update newsletter.

For more information on OA at Harvard and beyond, please consult the following resources:

Open Access Week, October 22 – 28, 2012
http://www.openaccessweek.org/

Open Access Week 2012 at Harvard
http://osc.hul.harvard.edu/oaweek2012

Harvard Open Access Project (HOAP)
http://cyber.harvard.edu/hoap/

Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC)
http://osc.hul.harvard.edu/