The Week in Links — April 18

What has been happening in the world of Open Access in the last week?

Oregon State University’s library has begun a new program to offer open access eTextbooks produced by their faculty in house. This project aims to reduce the financial burden on students caused by expensive textbook fees.

A recent commentary in the journal Globalization and Health describes the impact of open access publishing in Kenya, but also how this model could be expanded to other African nations. The socioeconomic disadvantage faced by researchers in Africa could be remedied by increased access to newly published research.

A conglomerate of librarians of liberal arts colleges in the United States has begun talks to establish an open access publishing house.

David Kerr, a Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University of Oxford, commented on the impact of open access publishing on the development of new cancer treatments. Kerr argues that increased free availability of publications and data through open access would drastically improve the pace of research by allowing scientist to be more connected.

The student-newspaper at the University of California, San Francisco has published a series of articles about the changing impact of open access publishing and its future. You can find the article series here.

The Edinburgh Publishing Conference will occur at the University of Edinburgh Business School on June 20th. This conference will focus on” Disruption in the Publishing Industry: Digital, Analytics & the Future.”