Milner Library is one of thousands of organizations celebrating Open Access Week October 21-27, 2024. The annual event aims to “inspire global momentum toward the open sharing of knowledge in order to address important social issues,” by drawing attention to the benefits of open access publishing, as well as the progress made and challenges to advancing open access. Peter Suber defines open access literature as “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.” By making research free to read and reuse, authors make their work easier to discover, engage with, share, and build upon.
This year, Open Access Week coincides with a major milestone in Milner Library’s support for open access, namely, achieving 2 million downloads in the institutional repository, ISU ReD. ISU ReD hosts a diverse array of materials from across the University community, including student and faculty scholarship, the Image of Research competition exhibit, peer-reviewed journals, programs from music and theatre events, and University reports. Readers worldwide have engaged with ISU ReD collections since it was established in 2012. An uptick in deposits has accelerated engagement with ISU ReD, leading to the 2 millionth download on Saturday, September 21. In the last year alone, ISU ReD has registered 417,568 downloads; of the “Top 10” downloaded items during this period, six are master’s theses, with Tyvon Lesure’s multimedia documentary thesis “Phenomenal Women and their Sexualization in Media” earning the top spot. “ISU ReD has been helpful in extending the reach of my research,” Lesure said. “I am grateful that my thesis is being shared outside of Illinois State University. It truly feels like my work will live forever.”
As the institution seeks to elevate the excellence of its scholars, ISU ReD provides a key mechanism for demonstrating the exceptional work conducted across campus, collocating it in one location, and making it publicly and persistently available worldwide. By depositing in ISU ReD, authors can easily share their scholarly and creative outputs—whether in a CV, with colleagues worldwide, or even for application purposes. Having ISU research in one location also makes it easier for students considering the University to see the variety of work being done across campus.
Another critical component of Milner Library’s support for open access are the agreements it has negotiated with several scholarly publishers. Since entering into its first agreements in 2021, Milner Library has funded the open access publication of almost 100 articles and chapters. By pursuing agreements with journal publishers that university authors select for their quality and rigor, Milner meets authors where they are and offers some additional support. We are particularly pleased that around one-third of these publications include at least one student author and that authors from all colleges have published open access under these agreements. Open access publishing reduces barriers to the excellent work produced by ISU authors, increasing their readership. Dr. Shawn Hitchcock, professor of chemistry, remarked that his recent article in The Journal of Organic Chemistry “has become one of my most read articles in a short period of time. I would definitely attribute part of this success to the open access model and the generous support from Milner Library.”
Open access publishing has its challenges; most notably, its funding models and costs can reinforce existing inequities in the scholarly communications landscape. Events throughout Open Access Week celebrate open access, while also grappling with some of the challenges.
Monday, October 21: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Milner Library Floor 2, 2,000,000 Downloads (and Counting)
Drop by for a sweet treat and celebrate ISU ReD’s 2 millionth download.
Tuesday, October 22: 12-1 p.m., Floor 6 SW corner, Open Access and Author Rights in the Age of AI
Join the Scholarly Communication Team, AVP for Research Craig McLauchlan, Director of Emerging Technologies for Instruction and Research Roy Magnuson, and Provost Fellow Kristin Carlson for a frank discussion of how AI intersects with open access and author rights.
Wednesday, October 23: 12-1 p.m., Floor 6 SW corner, Student Research in ISU ReD
Learn more about ISU ReD’s role as the official repository for electronic theses and dissertations, and explore opportunities for showcasing and promoting student work.
Thursday, October 24: 12-1 p.m., Floor 6 SW corner, Opening HathiTrust Data for Cultural Analysis: Evolving the TORCHLITE Project
J. Stephen Downie, associate dean for research at the School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois, and Illinois co-director of the HathiTrust Research Center, will discuss the digital scholarship applications of open content in the HathiTrust Digital Library.
Friday, October 25: 12 p.m., Floor 6 SW corner, Open Access Agreements at ISU: an Overview
The Scholarly Communication Team will provide a brief overview of existing and forthcoming open access agreements at Fourth Friday.
