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Celebrating Open Access Week 2022: Open for Climate Justice

By tshank | October 24, 2022

Open for Climate Justice 2022 Open Access Week Flyer

Open Access Week (October 24-30, 2022) is upon us again with this year’s theme being Open For Climate Justice. Much of the research being done by the Woods Hole Scientific Community is essential to understanding the broad, and unequal, impact climate change is having on our planet and those who make it their home. About 44% of publications going back over 100 years related to Woods Hole can be associated with the UN’s Climate Action Sustainable Development Goal, but how open is that research?

Woods Hole Publications Breakdown

If Climate Justice recognizes and acknowledges that climate change has disproportionate effects on historically marginalized or underserved communities (Yale Climate Connections), then in conjunction with that we must acknowledge that not all research done in the area of climate change is accessible to all. The effects of this imbalance in access “affect communities’ abilities to produce, disseminate, and use knowledge around the climate crisis” (International Open Access Week). Research, ideally, leads us to breakthroughs that better our lives, whether that be through the implementation of new solutions to challenges we face or influencing policy decisions made by governments (SPARC*). Open Research that is freely and widely available, has the possibility to go even farther. Open Research:

  • Helps funders find and invest in research
  • Leads to breakthroughs from unexpected places
  • Benefits authors by expanding their potential audience
  • Expands the scholarly conversation beyond the few with the means and privilege to access that information
  • And so much more! (SPARC*, Open Access)

So how does the Woods Hole Scientific Community stack up in open access publishing in the area of climate research compared to everyone else? We did an analysis using the Dimensions database (part of Digital Science) to see how publications assigned to the UN Sustainable Development Goal “13 Climate Action” category were published – open access (any type) or closed – and found that Woods Hole related publications include more than that has been published in an Open Access format over the past ten years than the entire body of work indexed by Dimensions.

Graph showing Percentage of Open Access Publications in the last few years

Image showing all SDG Climate Action Publications Open Access Vs Closed Access

In the last 10 years, 48.56% of all publications categorized under the “Climate Action” category were published Open Access, while 61.87% of Woods Hole associated “Climate Action” publications were published in some type of Open Access model. That number has continued to increase across the board, with Woods Hole continuing to be ahead of the average. While our analysis warrants further investigation, our findings indicate that while the Woods Hole Scientific Community is ahead of the field when it comes to Open Access publishing, we still have significant room for growth.

Are you looking to publish your next work in an Open Access format, but not sure where to deposit it? We’ve got you covered! Since 2004, the MBLWHOI Library has supported Open Access publishing of your research with our CoreTrustSeal Institutional Repository, the Woods Hole Open Access Server (WHOAS). We welcome publications from across the Woods Hole Scientific Community including the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), NOAA Fisheries, Sea Education Association (SEA), Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center (USGS), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Woodwell Climate Research Center. We can assign a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to appropriate theses/dissertations, conference and workshop presentations, datasets, images, and publications deposited in WHOAS which makes your work more findable and enables accurate data citation. For more information about WHOAS, visit our site or email us at whoas@whoi.edu.

If you have questions about Open Access publishing, talk to a librarian! The staff at the MBLWHOI Library is available to help. Check out some of the additional resources below for more information or contact a librarian at library@mbl.edu

Additional Resources: 

by  OA Week 2022 Committee
Samantha Porter, Audrey Mickle, Debbie Roth, Karen Urbec, and Matt Person

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