As Florida State University observes Open Access Week Oct. 21-27, Florida State University Libraries is advancing two campus-wide initiatives to support a growing international effort to promote free and immediate online access to scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use research results as needed.
The first initiative, 'DigiNole Upload-A-Thon,' is an effort to bulk up the holdings of DigiNole Commons - the university's institutional repository of scholarly articles - by encouraging at least one faculty member from each academic department to upload an already-published scholarly article.
Institutional repositories similar to Florida State's DigiNole Commons are becoming increasingly commonplace at the nation's universities as a method for achieving open access while continuing to publish research in traditional academic journals. Nineteen of the top 25 public universities as ranked by U.S. News & World Report have adopted policies or resolutions that make their scholarly articles openly accessible.
The second initiative, "Student Statement on the Right to Research," an open access resolution offered by the Right To Research Coalition, will give individual Florida State students and student organisations the opportunity to endorse the idea of open access as a right.
On Oct. 9, the Student Senate of Florida State's Student Government Association passed a resolution in support of open access, and the Congress of Graduate Students is expected to pass a similar resolution Oct. 21. In October 2011, the university's Faculty Senate passed a resolution endorsing the principle of open access. This is the fourth year that Florida State has celebrated Open Access Week.
