OpenUNC website increases access to research

Each day, faculty and students at East Carolina University and across the UNC System conduct research and engage in creative activities. Their discoveries power innovation and economic development. Their creativity enriches our culture and environment. Much of their work is publicly available but can be difficult to find.

Encompassing all institutions in the UNC System, OpenUNC highlights and advances open research practices, open access publication methods, open dissemination of research outputs and open educational resources.

The site provides easy access to all open access journals published at UNC System institutions, as well as open access monographs published by the UNC Press. OpenUNC also provides links to repositories and open publishing contacts at each university. It is accessible at https://openunc.org/.

Jan Lewis, Director of Academic Library Services at East Carolina University and past ULAC chair, helped conceive the website and identify its content.

“Universal access to knowledge in an environment of open scholarship and shared creativity supports UNC’s mission to discover, create, transmit, and apply knowledge to address the needs of individuals and society. We hope that OpenUNC will facilitate discovery and access to knowledge produced at our institutions and that it can promote the robust adoption of open research and publishing practices,” Lewis said.

“ULAC is delighted to share all types of open creative endeavors from UNC System institutions with the world through the OpenUNC platform,” said Anne Cooper Moore, chair of ULAC and dean of UNC Charlotte’s J. Murrey Atkins Library. “We hope members of our communities will contribute their works so others can benefit from their expertise.”

The site was designed by Michael Tucker, webmaster of ECU’s main campus library, and will be maintained by ULAC’s Scholarly Communication Working Group.