The 2014 International Open Access Week Kickoff Event, co-hosted by SPARC and the World Bank, will focus on this year's theme of "Generation Open." The hour-long kickoff event will take place on October 20 at 3pm EDT at the World Bank headquarters in downtown Washington, DC. It aims to provide a forum for students and early career researchers to have a lively conversation with an expert panel representing research funders, university administrators, and scholarly societies, exploring how the transition to Open Access affects scholars and researchers at different stages of their careers.
The event will also highlight some of the most interesting student and early career researcher-led initiatives that exemplify the "Generation Open" theme for International Open Access Week, including a preview of the worldwide launch of the Open Access Button.
Moderated by early career researcher Meredith Niles, the kickoff event will feature questions from both the in-person and online audiences. The panel will discuss the role that institutions central to a career in research can play in supporting—and rewarding—early career researchers in making their articles and underlying data openly accessible.
Expert panelists featured will include Stefano Bertuzzi, Executive Director, American Society for Cell Biology; José-Marie Griffiths, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Bryant University; Meredith Niles, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sustainability Science Program, Harvard University; and erry Sheehan, Assistant Director for Policy Development, National Library of Medicine.
Topics of discussion will likely include the role research evaluation plays in incentivizing openness; how students and early career researchers have created change on campus and nationally; suggestions for how to advocate for Open Access with co-authors and PIs; what the institutions represented by the panelists can do to support early career researchers in making their work open; and more.
A free webcast and LiveBlog of the panel discussion will be available at http://live.worldbank.org. No registration is required to view the webcast; however, participants are strongly encouraged to sign up to receive event updates and reminders. The webcast and LiveBlog will be recorded and posted for use during and after local Open Access events.
