WSU Research Exchange: WSU's own institutional Repository

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): a useful, searchable directory that you can use to see what open source journals are in your field

Sherpa Romeo: a database of publisher policies on open access and copyright issues

The dissemination of research and information through the scholarly journal has in recent years become prohibitively expensive. Ownership of many of these publications has come under the control of a few commercial conglomerates. The high costs of many scholarly journals (particularly in science, technology, and medicine, or the so-called STMs) and the recognition that scholarship should be widely circulated to enhance its social and educational value has led to the search for less expensive, alternative ways to publish and distribute it. These issues constitute the core of the scholarly communication crisis. This situation has been exacerbated by shrinking budgets at many colleges and universities, negatively impacting the ability of their libraries to acquire the scholarly resources necessary to fulfill their mandated educational mission. New opportunities and hazards for scholarly communication arose in the late 1990s with the development of the World Wide Web and protocols for digitizing and archiving electronic information.

This site is designed to promote and heighten awareness of significant issues associated with scholarly communication. Here you will find information about the current state of scholarly communication, about world- and nation-wide initiatives to improve scholarly communication, and about what WSU and the WSU Libraries are doing to make scholarly communication more sustainable and affordable for the WSU community.

October 22 - 28 is Open Access Week! Several exciting Open Access events will be taking place at WSU during this week, and we are excited to share these opportunities to learn more about open access with our community. Watch this space to learn more about Open Access Week at WSU.

Open Access Week Schedule, 2012

• Wednesday, October 24 - Join us for the LandEscapes Launch Party!

2:30-4:00pm in the Terrell Library Atrium

Celebrate the online launch of LandEscapes, WSU's own literary and arts journal. While LandEscapes has had an established print presence since 2000, it is now available online through Open Journal Systems (OJS), an open access journal management system, increasing the impact of the journal and making the literary and artistic works of LandEscapes authors and artists more accessible to a wider audience.

• Thursday, October 25 - Come hear Dave Parry give WSU's Open Access Week Keynote

7:00pm in the CUE Auditorium

Dave Parry is Assistant Professor of Emerging Media and Communications at the University of Texas at Dallas. His work combines a profound understanding of emerging media and its social ramifications with a focus on how traditional institutions (such as higher education) are being altered as our information society becomes less anchored to print. He is an engaging and provocative speaker, as can be seen in his keynote, "Ending Knowledge Cartels," presented at the 2012 Computers and Writing Conference. We are excited and honored to bring Dave Parry to WSU for Open Access Week.

• Friday, October 26 - Spark your interest in open access at our Ignite: Open Access, Open Knowledge event

2:00-4:00pm in CUE 518

What’s an Ignite talk? A concise presentation of 5 minutes or less, involving no more than 20 PowerPoint slides. Each slide will display for only 15 seconds. Ignite sessions are designed to spark interest, start conversations, and inspire your audience. We are expecting to showcase talks from a variety of presenters on multiple aspects of open access - from author rights, to open access digital projects, to open access textbooks. And, if there is an open access issue you are passionate about, we are still accepting proposals for Ignite talks. If you are interested, please see our call for proposals or contact Erica Carlson Nicol at eacarlson@wsu.edu.