Every October, libraries, societies, publishers, and authors around the world gear up to celebrate International Open Access Week. Begun as Open Access Day, since 2008, Open Access Week has been an annual opportunity to discuss and explore the issues related to information access. In 2021, Open Access Week will be commemorated October 25-31 with the theme, “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity,” intentionally aligning with the recently released UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, of which Open Access is a crucial component. Galter Library belongs to COAR (Coalition of Open Access Repositories) which strongly supports the recommendation and has been an active partner in its development. 

As the first global standard-setting framework on Open Science, the UNESCO Recommendation will provide an important guide for governments around the world as they move from aspiration to the implementation of open research practices. This year’s theme of “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity” highlights the recommendation’s call for equitable participation for all producers and consumers of knowledge. International Open Access Week is a time for the wider community to coordinate in taking action to make openness the default for research and to ensure that equity is at the center of this work.  

Following the adage “Think globally, act locally” and to make Open Access Week 2021 memorable and sweet, Galter Library team members will be delivering a little gift to Feinberg School of Medicine departments on the Chicago campus. 

Throughout the year, Galter’s liaison librarians and the DataLab provide consultation and support for the Feinberg community on various scholarly communication and research data management issues, including Open Access (OA). Librarian-curated GalterGuides highlight, flesh out, and provide tips on OA and data sharing-related topics: 

• The NIH Public Access Policy guide describes NIH public access policy and compliance, including the process for obtaining PMCIDs. This includes information about the law that mandated the NIH Public Access Policy as well as policy FAQs. 
• The Data Policies from Funding Agencies guide provides links to reports, policies, and standards that support sharing required by funders or journals. 
• The Open Access Publishing guide provides information on identifying OA journals, making use of open repositories, and finding university-related discounts for OA publishing. The Additional Open Access Resources tab leads to directories and organizations, as well as sources of information about Open Education Resources and Open Science. 
• The Open Access Health Resources guide connects researchers with OA resources in medicine, including directories, databases, publishers, journals, books, grey literature sources, as well as reference and training resources.