October 7, 2020

The Drexel University Libraries is celebrating Open Access Week this October 19 – 25, 2020!

Open Access (OA) Week is an annual, international event promoting open access to research. Launched in 2007, OA Week is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.

Open Access is central to the Libraries’ mission to provide access to authoritative information and shape future scholarship. The Libraries continually looks to new opportunities to increase awareness of the benefits of OA among Drexel faculty, researchers and students by hosting workshops and information sessions about OA publishing and access.

Beyond general awareness and education efforts, the Libraries also explores ways to increase use of OA materials in curricula to reduce textbook costs for students. The Libraries manages the University’s membership in the Open Education Network (formerly called the Open Textbook Network) and helps teaching faculty introduce Open Educational Resources (OERs) in their curricula, encouraging them to replace traditional textbooks with free or low-cost options when possible. Through these various efforts, the Libraries aims to encourage the sharing of scholarly research in the belief that when scholars share their work with each other, the entire academic community benefits.

This year, to mark Open Access Week, the Libraries is offering several virtual webinars as part of its continuing efforts to bring OA to campus. All events are free and open to all members of the Drexel community and the general public. Visit the Libraries’ resource guide for more information and resources about Open Access and Open Access Week at Drexel, and follow along with the conversation on social media with the hashtag #OAWeek.

Open Access Week at the Drexel Libraries

How Open Access Supports ‘Good Science’
Speaker: Emily Chenette, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, PLOS ONE
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 10 AM - 11 AM
Location: Virtual Event

What comes to mind when you think about good science? Is it reproducible? Impactful? Accessible? In this session, guest speaker Emily Chenette, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, PLOS ONE, will discuss what we mean when we talk about good science, and how Open Access supports the practice and publication of it. Chenette will also mention the steps PLOS takes to ensure that published papers are open and accessible, reproducible, conducted ethically, and contribute to the base of academic knowledge.
Watch the recording

Drexel OA Author Talk: Open Access—Is it Opening Pandora's Box?
Speaker: Deborah Clegg, PhD, RD, Associate Dean for Research, College of Nursing & Health Professions
Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2 PM – 2:30 PM
Location: Virtual event

The Drexel Libraries welcomes Deborah Clegg, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Nursing & Health Professions, for a session on the pros and cons of traditional vs. Open Access journals. Dr. Clegg will provide a decision tree to assist researchers in making the decision about where to publish research findings and data. Open Access can be the perfect format—but it does come with a cost. Learn more about Open Access publishing, including when it’s worth the extra expense.
Watch the recording

To Read and Be Read: When Monopolists Control Access to Academic Prestige
Speaker: Ted Bergstrom, Aaron and Cherie Raznick Chair of Economics, Distinguished Professor of Economics, UC Santa Barbara
Date: Thursday, October 22, 3 PM - 4 PM
Location: Virtual Event

Large commercial journal publishers have historically taken advantage of the scholarly authors and referees who give publishers monopoly rights to control access to their work. Publication in prestigious journals is crucial to a successful career in the academic world, and authors continue to donate their work to these publishers' journals due to the their earned prestige from a long history of publishing high quality work. However, over the last two decades, there has been much discussion of an alternative “open access" model of scholarly publishing, in which published articles are made freely available online and where authors or their universities pay a fee to the publisher for handling their articles. Join Ted Bergstrom, Distinguished Professor of Economics & Aaron and Cherie Raznick Chair of Economics, UC Santa Barbara, for a discussion about the power of commercial publishers and how the transition to open access publishing may begin to reduce that power, while also helping universities save money and promoting competition in the publishing industry.
Watch the recording