What has been happening in the world of Open Access in the last week? Graduate student Patricia San Jose talked with the Open Access Button team about why she joined the fight for open access and why open science is essential. Look for more conversations with Open Access Button users on our blog in the coming weeks! TODAY is the last day to apply for the Open Access Week competition. INASP is giving $500 to ten successful applicants.

This is the first of a weekly series highlighting Open Access Button users from around the world, discussing their work, and sharing their stories.

What has been happening in the world of Open Access in the last week? The Open Access Button launched the Open Access Button Action Centre this week. Want to help the team promote open access initiatives and combat paywalls? Join us: sign up today! Are you at Wikimania 2014 in London this weekend? Open Access Button team members David Carroll, Chealsye Bowley, and Megan Waples are there too! Feel free to ask them about the OA Button.

If you’re reading this, you probably know that it’s not okay for people to be denied access to research. Since November, the Open Access Button has been visualising when people are denied access to research all over the world.

What has been happening in the world of Open Access in the last week? Open access has been a powerful solution to the barriers that researchers in developing and transition countries face. The number of Open-access repositories as well as open access journals are growing in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, improving the dissemination of knowledge and reducing barriers to research in those countries.

Behind the Open Access Button is a team of international student volunteers. Get to know them on Team Button Tuesdays! This week meet two librarians: Heidi, one of our grant writers, and Lydia, one of our communications officers. Heidi Dowding, Grant Writer Hi there, I’m Heidi — a new addition to the Fundraising team, working as a grant writer.

This summer, thanks to a Jisc Grant, the Open Access Button Team is hard at work on the next Open Access Button. The Open Access Button is a quick and easy way to keep track of paywalls you encounter whilst you’re doing research. With your help we’ve mapped over 8,000 paywalls, an effort that’s helped to stress why barriers to research are bad for everyone.

What has been happening in the world of Open Access in the last week? It’s been an exciting first week for our new Communications Officers, Lydia and Megan. Our own Joe McArthur was interviewed for OKFestival 2014, speaking about the Button and his work with Right to Research Coalition. In sad and disturbing news-a graduate student in Colombia, Diego Gomez, is facing up to 8 years in prison for sharing an academic article online.

What has been happening in the world of Open Access in the last week? It’s been a bumper week here at the Open Access Button, with us announcing our collaboration with Cottage Labs on Button 2.0 and launch coordinator Chealsye guest-blogging for Biomed Central on building the Open Access Button.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 14, 2014 Contacts: openaccessbutton@medsin.org us@cottagelabs.com In November 2013, we launched the Open Access Button Beta in Berlin and since then the Open Access Button has been doing its job, visualising when people have been denied access to research because of a scholarly publishing system that is not fit for purpose.

What has been happening in the world of Open Access in the last week? The Open Access Button’s Launch Coordinator wrote a guest blog post for BioMed Central, “Building the Open Access Button,” discussing the progress the Button has made since its launch in November and the future of the Button. The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers published a set of open access licenses.