About Open Access Week

Open Access Week is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.

Open Access to information – the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need – has the power to transform the way research and scientific inquiry are conducted. It has direct and widespread implications for academia, medicine, science, industry, and for society as a whole.

Open Access Week is an invaluable chance to connect the global momentum toward the open sharing of knowledge with the advancement of policy changes and the importance of social issues affecting people around the world. The event is celebrated by individuals, institutions and organizations around the world.

International Open Access Week is organized by SPARC in partnership with the Open Access Week Advisory Committee. It was founded in 2008 by SPARC and partners in the student community.

The official hashtag of Open Access Week is #OAweek.

The archived theme announcements and accompanying graphics are available for the following years: 2022 (theme announcements, graphics), 2023 (theme announcements, graphics). Older materials are available on the legacy Open Access Week website.

For inquiries related to Open Access Week, please email sparc [at] sparcopen [dot] org.