This year’s theme focuses on “community over commercialization.” Open Access is the free, immediate, and online publication of research articles that are openly licensed and digitally accessible. At its core, Open Access publishing is a social justice issue that aims to make research more accessible to the greater public. Open Access scholarly publishing is related to Open Educational Resources (OER) in that they share similar licensing and ideology. OER materials provide students and teachers with free access to educational materials. OERs can significantly reduce the costs students spend on textbooks and other course materials. The UNM OER Initiative seeks to lower college costs for UNM students by encouraging and supporting UNM faculty with resources to adopt quality open materials in their courses.
