Save the date – Open Access Week 19-23 October 2009

After the resounding success of our first ever Open Access Day in 2008, where we had nearly 130 participating organizations from almost 30 countries, we are pleased to announce that this year’s events will be scheduled during the week of 19-23 October 2009.

Why a week rather than a day? When we asked for feedback from the folks taking part last year, while they said that they had enjoyed the “event-in-a-box” approach, many of them found that cramming everything into one day was tricky (especially given international time differences) and that spreading activities over a week to suit their individual needs would be easier.

What is also particularly pleasing about choosing this week is that 19 October is PLoS Medicine’s fifth birthday so any planned community-led events to celebrate this important milestone can do double duty.

The organizing forces behind Open Access week remain unchanged from last year namely: PLoS, SPARC and Students for FreeCulture but we also wish to add a technology partner who could assist us with streaming live web coverage of round table discussions or talks from prominent advocates and post event delivery. So if you are reading this and you work in this field or have significant experience of it and want to join the team please email Donna Okubo (dokubo@plos.org).

We will be launching our Open Access Week 2009 site shortly but in the meantime, you can sign up here.