Open Access Week is an annual
scholarly communication event focusing on
open access and related topics. It takes place globally during the last full week of October in a multitude of locations both on- and offline. Typical activities include talks, seminars, symposia, or the announcement of
open access mandates or other milestones in open access. For instance, the
Royal Society chose Open Access Week 2011 to announce that they would release the digitized backfiles of their archives, dating from 1665 to 1941.[1]
History
Open Access Week has its roots in the National Day of Action for Open Access on February 15, 2007, organized across the United States by
Students for Free Culture and the
Alliance for Taxpayer Access.[3]
In 2008, October 14 was designated
Open Access Day, and the event became global.[4] In 2009, the event was expanded to a week, from October 19–23.[5] In 2010, it took place from October 18–24.[6] From 2011 onwards, it is taking place at the last full week of October each year.[7]
Themes
In the early years, organisations celebrating Open Access Week set their own themes. Since 2012, an 'official' theme was established and received special attention at the corresponding kick-off events held at the
World Bank.