News & Events

ArXiv is one of the most important open access repositories for science research on the internet. Founded in 1991, it’s also one of the oldest running internet repositories, predating the World Wide Web. ArXiv is an open, curated research sharing platform, run by scientists for scientists, and it is free to read and free to submit. It covers physics, mathematics, computer science, economics, and quantitative biology.Today, you can also visit bioRxiv, psyArXiv, medRxiv, and the recent socArXiv (hosted by the University of Maryland), all open access repositories for their respective fields,…

At a recent NASA-sponsored workshop on open scholarship held by HELIOS Open, Dr. Michael Dougherty, Professor and Chair of UMD's Department of Psychology and UMD PACT member, provided a testimonial for transforming tenure, promotion, review, and hiring of faculty, based on his experiences working with approximately 30 tenure-track faculty members in the Department of Psychology. A written summary and video recording of Dr. Dougherty's talk, entitled "How to Engage Faculty," are available on HELIOS Open's website, along with the recorded testimonials of Dr. Elyse Aurbach, Director for Public…

Born digital, born accessible: Making the documents and data in open scholarship accessible to allTuesday, February 13, 2024 | 3:00pm - 4:30pm | Register via ZoomUpdate: The Zoom recording of this webinar is now available. The open scholarship / open science movement is based in part on the principle of equitable access to knowledge as a human right. But how equitable is that access if the documents and data produced in these frameworks are themselves not readily accessible to people with disabilities? In this webinar, experts will present the case for making the born-digital products of…

Heeding the Call: A Status Report on the White House OSTP Public-Access Guidance and an Overview of Open Scholarship Tools and Platforms Available for Use by UMD ResearchersThursday, November 16 | 3:00pm - 4:30pm | Register via ZoomUpdate: The Zoom recording of this webinar is now available.This panel presentation will include the latest news about federal agencies’ responses to the OSTP’s “Nelson Memo” on public access to research publications and data and will include a practical overview of open scholarship tools and platforms that UMD researchers may wish to use now, including the Open…

The University of Maryland Libraries are pleased to announce that in collaboration with the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), we are extending our open access agreement with Wiley, one of the world’s largest publishers and a leader in research and education.  As of January 1, 2023, UMD faculty, staff, and students have full access to read and publish in Wiley’s full portfolio of journals at no cost. Additionally, UMD corresponding authors pay no charge to publish articles as open access; articles become open access immediately upon publication with no embargo; and there are no caps or…

The campaign for open access is complicated. How does one balance the costs of copy editing, marketing, printing, and other expenses of quality publishing with the fact that publicly funded research should be available to the public at little to no cost? This is a topic Holly Brewer, University of Maryland Burke Chair of American Cultural and Intellectual History, Associate Professor of History, and Co-Chair of the Publishing, Access and Contract Terms (UMD PACT) working group, has become passionate about over the past decade. Costs to access academic publications have skyrocketed even as…

On August 25, 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memorandum regarding the open sharing of government-funded research. The memo, Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research, issues guidance to all federal agencies to develop plans ensuring that publicly funded research outputs will be openly available. This new and exciting commitment to knowledge equity will have important implications for University of Maryland researchers who are supported by federal grants and other financial investments. With this announcement,…

Tuesday, October 25, 2022 | 3:30-5:00pm | Register via Zoom In this virtual panel presentation in honor of International Open Access Week: Open for Climate Justice, Dr. Jessica Varner (University of Southern California) and Dr. Merlin Chowkwanyun (Columbia University) come together to discuss their unique interdisciplinary research in the intersections of environmental history, public health history, and industrial pollution, and the ways in which their research both relies upon and generates open-access information. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Philip Cohen (University of Maryland).…

A perplexing question for Dr. Patricia Alexander, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, and head of the Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Lab at the University of Maryland, concerns finding a balanced, pragmatic approach to the challenges and barriers facing open access. As a researcher, editor, and editorial board member to more than 12 journals, Alexander understands both the benefits of open access to researchers and readers and the actual costs of the publishing industry. It is her experience on both sides of the…

In a huge step forward for open access at the university, the Department of Psychology has adopted new guidelines that explicitly codify open science as a core criteria in tenure and promotion review. This change was spearheaded by department chair, Michael Dougherty. Dougherty is quoted in the announcement saying “When you think about the goal and purpose of higher education and why we take these positions, it’s because we felt there would be some good that we could impart on the world. The traditional markers of impact are how many times you’ve been cited [in a journal]. That’s not the…