SPARC Releases New Campaign for Student Engagement

SPARC has released a new educational initiative, “The Right to Research: The Student Guide to Opening Access to Scholarship", to engage students on the topic of Open Access.

Excerpt from the Press Release:

Washington, DC – January 28, 2008 – SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) has released a new educational initiative to engage students on the topic of Open Access. “The Right to Research: The student guide to opening access to scholarship” repeats SPARC’s call for student voices to broaden the ongoing discussion of access to research. . . .

The Right to Research:

• Helps students recognize the problem of access, saying they shouldn’t have to skip over research that could be important to their papers.
• Introduces the principle of Open Access, making a clear distinction between the principle and the ways Open Access is being realized – through OA journals, repositories, copyright management, and policies.
• Indicates how Open Access can make life as a student easier, advance research, widen access to those who need it, and increase visibility for student scholars.
• Offers ways to support OA for both graduate students approaching publishing decisions and undergraduates who wish to adopt the OA cause. . . .

Text for The Right to Research campaign was developed by Gavin Baker and refined with input from undergraduate and graduate students across the U.S. For more information, visit the SPARC Web site at http://www.arl.org/sparc/students.