Murphy Library News

Learn about open access during Open Access Week, Monday through Sunday, Oct. 20-26.

The 2014 Open Access Week commemoration offers many opportunities to learn about open access issues and how they apply to research done at UW-L. SPARC has produced this short video: Open Access Explained (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rVH1KGBCY) that quickly highlights the importance of increasing access to research. Open access is gaining support in the scientific community. In a 2004 letter to Congress, 25 Nobel Prize winners write: “There’s no question, open access truly expands shared knowledge across scientific fields — it is the best path for accelerating multi-disciplinary breakthroughs in research.” See www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/copyright/openaccesstoresearch/NobelOpenLtr082604.pdf. Nearly 80 percent of scholarly publishers allow people to self-archive their published research. The SHERPA/RoMEO website “Publisher copyright policies & self-archiving” has more information about publishing trends and policies. See www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/. Researchers at UW-L are encouraged to self-archive their research at the University of Wisconsin open access repository, MINDS@UW, athttp://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/8338. To learn more about Minds@UW, or how to be involved, contact David Mindel at dmindel@uwlax.edu.