Open Access Week (OAW*1) will mark the fifth round this year. Although we believe many readers are already familiar with this event, let us briefly explain to those who are not. Open Access Week has been organized by an American organization called SPARC*2 and voluntarily held in various parts of the world. It has been utilized as a forum for exchanging information and opinions on a wide range of issues, ranging from “What is an Open Access?” to “Business models and future of Open Access.” Literally, it is a week-long event and this year’s Open Access Week will be held from Monday, October 24 through Sunday, October 30.

As in the last year, NII will take this opportunity to hold the 1st SPARC Japan Seminar 2011. Specifically, the seminar will be held on Friday, October 28 during the Open Access Week, under the theme of “Current Situation and Strategy of Open Access from Viewpoints of Journal Publishing.”*3 We will invite three speakers to discuss about open access from their respective viewpoints. Participants will have an opportunity to exchange opinions with the speakers, those to whom you rarely have a chance to talk. We would be happy to hear your frank opinion including simple questions as well as support or objections to the views expressed by the speakers. We are looking forward to the participation of many people.

■ Particle Physics Journals’ Open Access Initiative
Masashi Takigawa (Professor, Division of New Materials Science, Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo)

■ Start up Open Access Journals by Researchers!
Naruya Saito (Professor, Division of Population Genetics, National Institute of Genetics)

■ Japanese Studies in the World and the Current Status of Digital Scholarly Communication
Tsutomu Tomotsune (lecturer, International Center for Japanese Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

Note

For the latest news of events, see the SPARC Japan website: （http://www.nii.ac.jp/sparc/en/event/）