1. Monday October 20th, 2025 at 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Please register in advance for this virtual session.
Session: Who Owns Our Knowledge? The Future of Equitable Open Access (Webinar)
Who truly owns the knowledge we create? As open access grows, so do concerns about commercialization, AI exploitation, and inequitable participation. This webinar will explore how to design open access models that center community ownership, protect against extractive practices, and amplify marginalized voices. Panelists will share strategies for balancing openness with privacy and consent, ensuring a future where knowledge is not only free to access but also ethically and equitably shared.
Registration for Monday 10/20/25 Webinar: https://tinyurl.com/b3739p29
Sponsored by The Open Science Education Institute (OSEI)
2. Monday October 20th, 2025 at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Innovation in Learning Center (ILC)
Zoom Option: https://southalabama.zoom.us/j/95374314160
Session: The Article Processing Charge (APC) costs how much?!?
Ways to work with USA Libraries to avoid expensive APC charges and publish Gold Open Access.
USA Libraries, Acquisitions Librarian, Tracy M. Cole, will share with faculty how they can publish journal articles and avoid expensive article processing charges, or APC’s. The session will explore the USA Libraries three different transformative agreements that will make your article immediately Gold Open Access, all while avoiding the APC cost barrier. In addition, the session will include a general primer on the types of Open Access, as well as why it matters for research impact, teaching, and access to knowledge.
USA Libraries, Acquisitions Librarian, Tracy M. Cole tmcole@southalabama.edu
3. Tuesday October 21, 2025 at 11 a.m. to 12 noon at the Innovation in Learning Center (ILC)
Zoom Option: https://southalabama.zoom.us/j/95517204407
Session: JagWorks @ USA: The University's Institutional Repository and Open Access Platform
In this session, Jana Herrmann, Institutional Repository Administrator, will introduce JagWorks@USA, the University of South Alabama's institutional repository, and demonstrate how faculty, researchers, and students can use this free resource to achieve their open-access goals. The presentation will explore various open access features available through the JagWorks platform, such as publishing open-access journals, providing open educational resources, and supporting data sharing to comply with funder mandates. Whether you want to publish course materials, share datasets, archive publications, or explore new publishing models, this presentation will demonstrate how JagWorks@USA can be a key resource for your professional and institutional open access needs.
USA Libraries, Jana Herrmann, Institutional Repository Administrator jherrmann@southalabama.edu
4. Tuesday October 21, 2025 at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Innovation in Learning Center (ILC)
Zoom Option: https://southalabama.zoom.us/j/97216582717
Session: How to find Open Access Resources and other No-Cost Resources
In this session, will cover how to get no-cost access versions of paywalled or inaccessible items like journal articles. We will talk about open access versions of articles. This could be especially useful for people doing interdisciplinary research or as information to pass on to students.
USA Libraries, Social Sciences and Instruction Librarian, Heather Butler, hmbutler@southalabama.edu
5. Wednesday October 22, 2025 at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Innovation in Learning Center (ILC)
Zoom Option: https://southalabama.zoom.us/j/91054391492
Session: Free and Open-Source Publishing with Open Journal Systems
Open Journal Systems (OJS) is a free and open-source software solution for hosting academic journals, including support for submission handling and peer review. In this presentation, we will see how OJS can be used to manage a journal, as well as learn how it can be freely self-hosted or used in partnership with a host such as York Digital Libraries.
Department of Math and Statistics, Professor Steven Clontz, sclontz@southalabama.edu
6. Thursday October 23, 2025 at 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Innovation in Learning Center (ILC)
Zoom Option: https://southalabama.zoom.us/j/91774098212
Session: Connecting the Dots with ORCiD
Join USA Libraries at the ILC for an introductory session on the benefits of having an ORCiD. This session will share the benefits of having an ORCiD, and why as an academic, researcher, and scholar, having an ORCiD in place is a scholarly communication best practice. Leave the session with your own ORCiD ready to go! Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop to the session.
USA Libraries, Biomedical Library
Gail Kouame, Biomedical Library Director gmkouame@southalabama.edu
Vivienne Auvil, Scholarly Communications Librarian vgauvil@southalabama.edu
