Libraries Offer Free Screening of Paywall for Open Access Week

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Film still: "Philosophical Transactions" (Volume 1, 1665), the first journal devoted to science research.

Join the University Libraries for a screening of Paywall: The Business of Scholarship from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, in the Arkansas Union Theatre (ARKU 424) as part of Open Access Week. This event is free, open to the public, and is part of a worldwide effort to screen this documentary on college and university campuses with students, staff and faculty invited to attend. 

"Open Access is one of the most important issues, and while often acknowledged within STEM disciplines, it is equally a social science and humanities issue," said Michelle Gibeault, English and communication librarian for the University Libraries. "This documentary does an excellent job of building understanding about the illogic of enclosing scholarly information." 

The film analyzes the current barriers that limit access to many research articles. It introduces the history of scholarly publishing and examines how for-profit publishers came to dominate academic scholarship. 

"The question is not whether scholarly literature can be made costless, but whether there are better ways to pay the bills than by charging readers and creating access barriers," said Peter Suber, director of the Open Access Project and Office for Scholarly Communication at Harvard University.

Open Access Week (Oct. 21-27) is an international celebration and opportunity for advocacy. For more information about Open Access at the University of Arkansas, visit the Libraries' Open Scholarship Research Guide.