Open Access Button

{{Short description|Browser bookmarklet}}

File:OpenAccessButtonLogo.svg

The Open Access Button is a browser bookmarklet which registers when people hit a paywall to an academic article and cannot access it.{{cite web|title=About|url=http://oabutton.wordpress.com/about/|work=Open Access Button|date=4 July 2013|accessdate=18 November 2013}} It is supported by Medsin UK and the Right to Research Coalition.

A prototype was built at a BMJ Hack Weekend.{{cite web|title=The Open Access Button: It's time we capture individual moments of paywall injustice and turn them into positive change|url=http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/09/02/the-open-access-button-carroll-mcarthur/|work=LSE Impact|accessdate=18 November 2013|author=Carroll, David|author2=McArthur, Joseph|year=2013}}{{cite journal|title=Picture of the week|journal=BMJ|date=July 2013|volume=347|url=http://www.bmj.com/highwire/section-pdf/653443/0/1|accessdate=18 November 2013}} All code is openly available online at GitHub.{{cite web|title=Open Access Button|url=https://github.com/oabutton|work=GitHub|accessdate=18 November 2013}}

A beta version of the Open Access Button was officially launched on 18 November 2013 at the Berlin 11 Satellite Conference for Students & Early Stage Researchers.{{cite web|title=Speakers at B11 Satellite Conference|url=http://www.righttoresearch.org/act/berlin11/speakers|work=Right 2 Research Coalition|accessdate=18 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131122042127/http://www.righttoresearch.org/act/berlin11/speakers|archive-date=22 November 2013|url-status=dead}} It records instances of hitting a paywall, and also provides options to try to locate an open access version of the article.{{cite web|title=Push button for open access|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/18/open-access-button-push|work=Guardian|accessdate=18 November 2013|date=18 November 2013}} In April 2014 a crowdfunding campaign was started to build a second version.{{cite news|last=Browne|first=Tania|title=Let's shine a light on paywalls that deny open access to scientific research|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2014/apr/29/paywalls-open-access-button-scientific-research|accessdate=29 April 2014|newspaper=Guardian|date=29 April 2014}}

The second version of the button was launched on 21 October 2014 as part of Open Access Week.{{Cite web |url=http://blog.openaccessbutton.org/2014/10/02/launching-the-new-open-access-button-push-button-get-research-make-progress/ |title=Launching the new Open Access Button. Push Button. Get Research. Make Progress. | Open Access Button blog |access-date=2014-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008001151/http://blog.openaccessbutton.org/2014/10/02/launching-the-new-open-access-button-push-button-get-research-make-progress/ |archive-date=2014-10-08 |url-status=dead }}

In February 2015 the Open Access Button and its co-founders, David Carroll and Joseph McArthur ("the button boys"), were awarded a SPARC Innovator Award by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).{{cite web|last1=Adams|first1=Caralee|title=SPARC Innovator: The Open Access Button|url=http://www.sparc.arl.org/initiatives/innovator/oabutton|website=Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition|publisher=Association of Research Libraries|date=2015|accessdate=19 October 2015|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915122630/http://www.sparc.arl.org/initiatives/innovator/oabutton|archivedate=2015-09-15}}

The third version of the button was launched on 28 October 2016, again, as part of open access week.{{Cite web|url=https://openaccessbutton.org/blog/new-oab-2016|title=Open Access Button|last=Labs|first=Cottage|website=openaccessbutton.org|access-date=2016-10-28}}