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OA Week

Welcome to OA week, a celebration of Open Access principles and progress around the world. In preparation for this year’s activities PLOS, SPARC, and OASPA recently released the final version of the Open Access Spectrum guide. This resource outlines the core components of Open Access across the continuum from “open access” to “restricted access”. Its aim is to help authors make informed decisions on where to publish based on journal policies. It also provides a resource for funders and other organizations to help establish criteria for the level of open access required for their policies and mandates. Ultimately, the conversation must shift from “Is It Open Access?” to “HowOpenIsIt?”

To kick off OA Week, SPARC and the World Bank are hosting a live blog and webcast today at 4:00 EST.

PLOS will celebrate the week in a number of ways:

Monday, October 22

  • Wide release of the Open Access Spectrum guide
  • PLOS is a member organization of the The Humanitarian Centre,  which has launched its 2012 Cambridge International Development report. The report is a collection of original pieces from speakers and participants in the Humanitarian Centre’s ‘Global Health Year’: a year of events and activities designed to explore ways that people from different disciplines, sectors and countries can work more effectively together to tackle global health challenges.
  • PLOS Advocacy Director, Cameron Neylon, examines the next phase of Open Access in a blog post: Free and Open Data as a Worldwide Economic Engine
  • Guest blogger Barbara Fister provides an educator’s perspective in an post that considers open science as an alternative to the “science-as-property” model used in most schools and colleges

Tuesday, October 23

Wednesday, October 24

  • Guest blogger Mark Thorley (Natural Environment Research Council and lead for Research Councils UK on their Open Access policy) provides a funder’s perspective on why Open Access matters when spending public funds to advance scientific research
  • Cameron Neylon is a guest speaker at the University of Exeter delivering a talk entitled, “Realizing the full potential of Open Access: How I learned to stop worrying and love the RCUK policy”
  • Kristen Ratan, PLOS Chief Publications and Products Officer, participates in an Open Access publishing day forum at the National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Thursday, October 25

  • To celebrate the 5th anniversary of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases,  the journal will be publishing a number of items around the theme of progress made in the NTDs field and challenges that remain. We will be publishing a commemorative Editorial, two collections, and a call for Historical Profiles and Perspectives submissions. The primary collection is called “The Geopolitics of Neglected Tropical Diseases”.  The collection is a compilation of previously published review articles focusing on the geographic distribution of NTDs by region, inspiring readers to think about the geopolitics of the infectious diseases affecting the most marginalized populations and the unique perspective of the burden of disease within a global context. A secondary collection compiles our top-viewed research articles from each year of publication to highlight the continued impact of our primary research.
  • A Q&A with Peter Hotez and Serap Aksoy, Editors-in-Chief of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, on how far the journal has come in the past five years.

Friday, October 26

  • Guest blogger Christy Collins, Founder and President of M-CM Foundation, patient advocate, and parent, gives us a closer look at how patient advocates are using data from open source medical research
  • Cameron Neylon is attending the launch of the Open Access policy at the University of Oslo

 

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