SURF, the higher education and research partnership for network services and ICT in the Netherlands, is launching the website www.openaccess.nl. The website has been developed on behalf of the whole higher education sector and links up with international Open Access week (19 to 23 October).

The Open Access website provides structured information about Open Access to research results and the advantages that Open Access has. Practical examples are used to illustrate the possibilities opened up by the Internet for innovations in scholarly communication.

The website provides researchers with information about how Open Access can give their work a larger potential audience. Openaccess.nl shows the options that each discipline has for making research results openly accessible.

Leading researchers
On the website, Robbert Dijkgraaf (President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, KNAW) explains why Open Access publication is necessary: “The starting point is that the maximum possible number of people should be able to have access to the results of science and scholarship. Ultimately, that will provide the greatest benefit for science and scholarship.” Other leading researchers, including a Nobel Prize-winner, provide inspiration, including for administrators and teachers. The English-language website is intended mainly for those involved in higher education and research in the Netherlands.

Open Access week
The website will go online during international Open Access week, when research universities, universities of applied sciences and research institutes will be devoting extra attention to the importance of Open Access to the results of research that has been financed with public money. Many of the Dutch universities will be organising information sessions to explain the advantages of Open Access publication to their scholars. The higher education sector hopes that by providing examples and practical help, it can inspire present and future researchers. SURF is coordinating the programme in the Netherlands.

The idea behind Open Access is a simple one: research that has been financed with public funds should be accessible to everybody and not only to institutions that can afford to pay for increasingly expensive subscriptions. A recent economics study has shown that Open Access publication can save the Netherlands up to 133 million euros each year. This does not need to have a detrimental effect on the quality of scientific and scholarly research; after all, there are many different routes leading to Open Access.

Original post here.

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