As we move into another International Open Access Week, we've prepared a brief summary of recent Axial posts and other activities from ACS Publications that you might have missed.
For more than 15 years, researchers, institutions and publishers across the world have marked International Open Access Week each October: a weeklong event that celebrates the concept of open access and highlights its role in the communication of knowledge.
As we move into another International Open Access Week, we've prepared a brief summary of recent Axial posts and other activities from ACS Publications that you might have missed.
Exploring open science: The Open Science Essentials webinar series
Since September, ACS Publications has been running a series of webinars under the banner of Open Science Essentials. Each session looks at a different aspect of open science, convening a panel of experienced researchers and publishing professionals to discuss important topics and field questions from our audience.
This week, we're revisiting research integrity (a popular topic from our 2024 webinar series), with a final webinar in mid-November looking at the future prospects for open access.
You can register for our upcoming webinars here, and there's no need to worry if you've missed a session—registering now will grant you access to the on-demand recordings.
- September 18: Preprints, Copyright, and the Scientific Record (recording available)
- October 7: Open Sharing of Research Data: Policies and Prospects (recording available)
- October 21: Revisiting Research Integrity and Open Science
- November 11: What Next for Open Access?
Listening to the community: Open Science Conversations
For over a year, we've been interviewing librarians and researchers from around the globe and sharing their views on open science though a dedicated series on ACS Axial. You can browse the full list of interviews, or find a selection of interviews below:
- Prof. Ian Cousins, Stockholm University
- Sue Cardinal, University of Rochester
- Vesna Srot, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
- Matt McDowell, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Dr. Mariolino Carta, Swansea University
Navigating a changing landscape: US federal funders' public access policies
If you've been following US federal funder policy news, you'll likely be aware that the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation recently implemented their updated public access policies, with all other federal funding agencies to follow by January 1, 2026. This will also be familiar ground for regular readers of ACS Axial, as we've written about these policies numerous times.
While not open access in the strictest sense (as manuscripts aren't expected to carry a specific license permitting their reuse—one of the hallmarks of OA), these policies are broadly equivalent to an immediate green open access mandate.
In practice, this means that if a researcher receives any kind of federal funding to support their work, their next published article will almost certainly need to be made immediately available in their funder's repository at the time of publication. (Other requirements may apply in order to fully comply with funders' public access policies—authors will need to confirm the specifics with the relevant federal funding agency.)
To find out more, including how to publish with ACS and remain compliant with funder mandates, view our collection of resources here.
Browsing the archives: Other recent open access articles
Have you missed any of our recent articles on open access? Keep up to date with our latest blog posts here: