Posted on: October 22, 2023
The Open Access (OA) movement seeks to provide academic information freely and openly online. An OA publication can be read, downloaded, and used for free legally. This is in contrast to subscription publications, which readers (or libraries!) must pay to access. International Open Access Week (#OAWeek) takes place in October every year to raise awareness about the importance of sharing information openly.
There are many benefits to OA publishing, for both readers and authors. When academic research is available openly, more researchers and practitioners can access the research, regardless of if they are at a university that can subscribe to many academic journals. This helps the authors of that research as well—when articles are freely available and can be accessed by more researchers, they may be cited more often. More and more grants, including tri-agency grants, are requiring that research funded by the grant be published OA so it is accessible to all.
Learn more about OA:
•TRU’s library guide: https://libguides.tru.ca/openaccess
•Open Access Week online events from UBC Library: https://open.ubc.ca/open-access-week-2023/
•Upcoming information session about publishing OA: https://tru.libcal.com/event/3745468
