Purdue Libraries celebrates Open Access Week with open education and research events, Journal Editors' Group Tea

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University Libraries will celebrate Open Access from Oct. 21-27 with three key events, including an Open Education Event presented by David Ernst, CIO in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. Activities also include a Journal Editors Group Tea and an open research event presented by Victoria Stodden of Columbia University.

Awards will also be presented to key faculty members for their commitment and contributions to the advancement of Open Access at Purdue University.  

"Open Access" to information – the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need - has the power to transform the way research and scientific inquiry are conducted. It has direct and widespread implications for academia, medicine, science, industry, and for society as a whole.

Open Access has the potential to maximize research investments, increase the exposure and use of published research, facilitate the ability to conduct research across available literature, and enhance the overall advancement of scholarship. Research funding agencies, academic institutions, researchers and scientists, teachers, students, and members of the general public are supporting a move toward Open Access in increasing numbers every year. Open Access Week is a key opportunity for all members of the community to take action to keep this momentum moving forward.

Open Access Week events include:

* Oct. 23: 2-3:30 p.m. Stewart Center, Room 314. Open Education Event. Open Textbooks and Educational Resources: New Approaches to Affordable Education. Speaker: David Ernst, University of Minnesota. Co-sponsored by Purdue Libraries and Purdue Student Government.

This event will begin with the presentation of an Open Access (Education) Award by A. Dale Whittaker, vice provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs. It will be presented to professor Linda S. Bergmann, director of the Online Writing Lab, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2013. Now featuring more than 300 reference and instructional materials, all made freely available online, OWL has established itself as one of the premier open educational resources on the web. After the presentation, Purdue Libraries Dean James L. Mullins will introduce the speaker.

Ernst will describe efforts in the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development to improve college access, affordability, and success by reducing the impact of textbook and course material costs for students. Ernst spent the last two years identifying barriers to the adoption of open textbooks and finding ways to help institutions and faculty overcome those barriers. He created the Open Academics textbook catalog in April, 2012 as a single source for faculty to find open textbooks. The catalog has had more than 70,000 visits from instructors in 173 countries.

* Thursday, Oct. 24, 3-4 p.m., Purdue Memorial Union East Faculty Lounge. Journal Editors Group Tea. The fall meeting is open to anyone who would like to learn more about open access or is interested in sustainable business models for journal publishing, or concerned about predatory open access publishers. Refreshments will be served.

The meeting will be discussion-based. RSVPs are not necessary, but are appreciated. Please email Becky Bunch at rsbunch@purdue.edu if you plan to attend.

The Editors Group is open to Purdue faculty, staff, and students who edit journals or proceedings, or serve on editorial boards.

* Friday, Oct. 25: 9-10:30 a.m., Lawson Computer Science Building, Room 1142. Open Research Event, titled "Scientific Reproducibility: Opportunities and Challenges for Open Research Data and Code." Speaker: Victoria Stodden, Columbia University. Co-sponsored by Purdue Libraries and the Cyber Center in Discovery Park

This event will begin with the presentation of an Open Access (Research) Award by Dr. S. Laurel Weldon, interim vice provost for Faculty Affairs.  It will be presented to professor. Mark S. Lundstrom, Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology. The award is presented in recognition of Lundstrom’s leadership in creating NanoHUB, a radical departure from traditional forms of scholarly communication in nanotechnology with a strongly open access character. After the presentation, Dean Mullins will introduce the speaker.

Stodden is an assistant professor of statistics at Columbia University. Her research centers on the multifaceted problem of enabling reproducibility in computational science. This includes studying adequacy and robustness in replicated results, designing and implementing validation systems, developing standards of openness for data and code sharing, and resolving legal and policy barriers to disseminating reproducible research.