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Open Access is a movement that encourages making scholarly resources more freely available over the internet. The goal is to maximize the impact of research (particularly research that has been funded with public money).
"The basic idea of open access is that it makes copyrightable works available without all of the access barriers associated with the 'all rights reserved' model. These can take the form of price barriers and permission barriers. Open access typically comes in two forms. Gratis open access removes price barriers, whereas libre open access additionally removes at least some permission barriers, allowing users to copy, redistribute, and/or adapt a work. Open access contrasts with more traditional models of restricted-access publishing in which copies of works are made directly available only to paying customers" (Understanding Open Access: When, Why, & How to Make Your Work Openly Accessible- A 2015 guide from the Authors Alliance for authors who want to make their works open and widely available, CC-BY).
Open Access Week is a global event where members of the academic and research community teach, learn, and share information about this publishing model.
Open Access Resources
Open Educational Resources (OER) are "teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others" (*From The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation).
OER allow users to:
OER News & Resources