Zack Batist, a graduate student in Anthropology who recently completed his Master’s thesis, knows first–hand the value of data. Now he wants to learn more about how to make scholarly data more freely accessible online to researchers around the world.
Batist is the 2015 recipient of the McMaster University Library’s OpenCon Travel Scholarship.
The scholarship, valued at $2500 US, will provide funding for Batist to attend OpenCon,* an annual three-day conference dedicated to exploring “open access,” a global movement aimed at making scholarly publications and data more freely available for the benefit of researchers, institutions and society as a whole.
“I have an interest in open access and open data and the way in which it broadens the applications of research for scholars who wouldn’t typically have access to it,” says Batist. “I’d like to learn how to apply open data principles, as well as how to advocate for open access and help people understand the benefits of it.”
Batist will attend the OpenCon conference in Brussels, Belgium from November 14-16. He will then share share his knowledge with the campus community including graduate students, faculty, library staff and others involved in the research enterprise, to encourage the development of initiatives and better inform the McMaster community about open access issues.
“Open access is a growing trend in scholarly research,” says McMaster University Librarian Vivian Lewis. “We are pleased to provide Zack with the opportunity to hear from international experts on open access and to learn more about how we, at McMaster, can encourage researchers to make scholarly journals and data more readily accessible to the global research community.”
Institutions and funding agencies around the world are adopting open access policies that encourage researchers to make their work freely available online in an open access journal or repository. Learn more about open access at McMaster.
*OpenCon is intended to inspire the next generation of scholars to change how research outputs are shared through open access, open data and open educational resources.
