SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), the Public Library of Science (PLoS), and Students for FreeCulture have jointly announced to celebrate 14th October 2008 as the first international Open Access Day.

October 14, 2008 will be the world’s first Open Access Day.

The founding partners are SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), Students for FreeCulture, and the Public Library of Science.

Open Access Day will help to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access, including recent mandates and emerging policies, within the international higher education community and the general public.

Sources: www.openaccessday.org

Congratulations to all of the founding members of the Open Knowledge Society. India has long set the standard for economically priced research publications and, more recently, for open access led by the journals of the Indian Academy of Sciences. It is also a great tribute to the memory of Late Dr. T. B. Rajashekar, who did so much to advance access to knowledge through his work at Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bangalore, India.