UW Libraries to Screen Paywall Documentary Oct. 21

University of Wyoming Libraries will screen “Paywall: The Business of Scholarship” Monday, Oct. 21.

The screening of the documentary will take place in Room 506 of Coe Library at 5:30 p.m. The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of International Open Access Week. Light refreshments will be provided.

“Paywall: The Business of Scholarship” focuses on the need for open access to research and science. The documentary questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers; examines the 35 to 40 percent profit margin associated with the top academic publisher, Elsevier; and looks at how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google.

International Open Access Week is a global event that takes place Oct. 21-27. The week encourages academic and research communities to learn and educate themselves about the benefits of open access. Open access is the free, instant, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and reuse the results.

“Open access has the potential to maximize research investments; increase the exposure and use of published research; facilitate the ability to conduct research across available literature; and enhance the overall advancement of scholarship,” according to openaccessweek.org.

For more information, call Hilary Baribeau, an assistant librarian in Digital Collections, at (307) 766-6860 or email hbaribea@uwyo.edu.