October 19, 2020
International Open Access Week promotes benefits of open access publishing
This week, K-State Libraries is joining a global celebration of open access publishing and encouraging K-State researchers to explore how they can help contribute to this important effort in the academic and research community.
Open access helps spread knowledge and provide affordable options for all. Besides combatting the rising costs of academic journals, many of which can cost thousands of dollars a year to access, open access publishing can help reduce duplication in publicly funded research and help bring better visibility and impact to an instructor's work.
K-State Libraries support several open access initiatives, including Textbooks 2.0; the K-State Research Exchange, or K-REx; and the Open Access Publishing Fund. This fund supports making K-State research and scholarship immediately, freely and globally available by paying reasonable article processing charges for publishing in open access journals.
K-State faculty and researchers can make an impact on open access initiatives by:
- Publish your articles in an open access journal. You can find an open access journal in your discipline using the Directory of Open Access Journals.
- Support green open access, or repository-based open access, and negotiate with publishers to permit self-archiving your work in K-REx, K-State's institutional repository.
- Discuss the cultural and social impacts of closed research with your peers including those that impact tenure review in your department.
- Switch your courses to an Open Educational Resource with funds provided by Textbooks 2.0, which offers students an affordable alternative to traditional textbooks for only $10 per class.
- Apply Creative Commons Licenses to your works.
- Publish with New Prairie Press, K-State's very own open access digital press.
- Explore possible next steps for K-State by reading the report from the Scholarly Communication Task Force
If you have questions about open access and how to get involved, the Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship at K-State Libraries can provide direction, and answer questions. Please reach out to Emily Finch with questions.