Is open access the future of scholarly publishing?

Open access is bringing exciting changes to scholarly communication. It is currently a widely discussed and debated topic by government, institutions and publishers. Open Access Week provides an opportunity to come and find out why open access is important for you, your institution, your discipline, and everyone.

St Andrews University Library has organised a special event on Friday 26 Oct, 11.30-16.30:

The humanities and open access: opportunities and challenges in  Parliament Hall, South St, St Andrews

*Register (free) online*

Our invited speaker, Gary Hall, will explain why open access is important by focusing on a number of projects that creatively engage with open access research and publications:

This talk will explain why open access is important for the humanities, the University, indeed everyone. In will do so by focusing on a number of projects that creatively engage with open access research and publications, including Living Books about Life (www.livingbooksaboutlife.org), aJISC-funded series of over twenty open access books which provides a bridge between the humanities and the sciences. Produced by a globally-distributed network of writers and editors and open to ongoing collaborative processes with readers, these ‘living’ books repackage existing open access science research by clustering it around selected topics to form a series of coherent single-themed volumes - on air, bioethics, cosmetic surgery, extinction, human geonomics, pharmacology, veterinary science and so on. As the title of the project suggests, the theme that unites the volumes in the series is life, understood both biologically and philosophically.

Read more about Living Books about Life on @ the Library blog
All the books are available on our library catalogue

We will also hear about open access activities from academics in St Andrews, new journal hosting services in both St Andrews and Edinburgh University libraries, and more. While focusing on the humanities, this event will be relevant for anyone who needs to understand why open access is important.

Lunch and refreshments included - come and join us for a lively debate!