EIFL hosted on January 31, 2012 in the context of its Open Access programme a webcast with Nick Shockey, Director of Right to Research Coalition and of Student Advocacy, SPARC.

Involve students more in Open Access advocacy

The target audience of the webcast was students and young researchers who want to get engaged in Open Access; educate their peers on the severe barriers to access the latest research and the benefits of Open Access. The objective: involve students more in Open Access advocacy.

The Session recordings and slides are available on the EIFL website.

Join the Right to Research Coalition

Shockey first talked about "Join the Right to Research Coalition", a suite of resources to help students advocate for and educate others about Open Access. He then concentrated on the main issue they work on: students can not access essential research.

Problem: Expensive academic journals

Over the past two decades, the price of subscriptions to academic journals has increased tremendously, to the point where they’re often out of reach for students, even at the most well funded institutions.

Solution: Open Access

The proven alternative to the costly subscriptions is Open Access (OA), the practice of providing unrestricted access via the Internet to peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles.

Through OA, research can reach anyone who needs it, regardless of university affiliation, geographic location, or ability to pay, instead of locking information behind price barriers.

Get involved

You can register at Right to Research your organization if you want to stay up-to-date on significant developments from the Right to Research Coalition; if you are interested in advocating for your university to adopt an institutional Open Access policy.

Formal membership in the Right to Research Coalition is only open to student organizations. However, students and non-students alike, can sign The Individual Statement on The Right to Research.