The theme of International Open Access week is Learn, Share, Advance – a timely reminder that open access is not only about REF compliance but is a chance to share your work widely and advance the sum of human knowledge.
This interview with an Indian academic shows that open access is valued in the developing world.
For stories where there is public interest open access papers can have a huge impact. For example, a paper in Scientific Reports on the impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident on the pale grass blue butterfly was accessed over a quarter of a million times in its first month of publication. It is easy to forget that many members of the public who normally have no access to academic journals still have a keen interest in research.
Swansea University currently has 1824 open access items on Cronfa and 517 embargoed ready to become open access in future – an increase of 73% since October 2015. Please remember to add your work – there will be someone out there who really wants to read it!
If you need help to make your work open access:
- Links to our guides can be found in this blogpost.
- Open access briefings will be on Thursday 3 Nov, 12-1 and Fri 25 Nov 12-1 in the SURF room, Fulton House – book here.
- Contact iss-research@swansea.ac.uk