October 23, 2017, by Lucy Bray

10th International Open Access Week

Celebrating Open Access!

It’s the 10^th International Open Access Week on 23-29 October 2017! This year’s theme is an invitation to answer the question of what tangible benefits can be achieved by making scholarly outputs openly available. “Open in order to…” is intended as a prompt to go beyond talking about openness and focus instead on what openness enables us to do within individual disciplines and institutions.

To celebrate, we’ve pulled together the top 5 benefits to publishing OA:

1. Wide dissemination of work to a broader audience

Your work isn’t subscription only and is therefore accessible to anyone with an internet connection, anywhere in the world!

2. Compliance with open access mandates

HEFCE’s OA policy states that any article or conference paper accepted for publication after the 1 April 2016 must be made open access to be eligible for submission in the next REF. Your funder may also mandate that findings of work funded by their grants must be made OA.

3. Promotion and publicity of quality research

You’ve worked hard to get your work published in a reputable journal, and now the masses are able to access your final published manuscript easily and quickly.

4. Easier access at no cost

Once you’ve published open access your manuscript isn’t sitting behind a paywall, accessible only to subscribers. It’s easily accessible through a google search and won’t cost the recipient a thing!

5. Maximises impact and citation potential

This wide, free and timely dissemination of work means that more people will see it when it is relevant, maximising citation potential and therefore making more of an impact. What’s not to love?

The official hashtag of Open Access Week is #OAweek. Use the hashtag #OpenInOrderTo to participate in an online conversation about the benefits of an open system of communicating scholarship.

For more information about International Open Access Week, please visit www.openaccessweek.org.

Want to know more about open access and how it affects your research? Take a look at our comprehensive webpages.

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