Calls to “Set the Default to Open Access” will be heard around the world during the 6th Annual Open Access Week, Oct. 22 - 28. Since 2009, Georgia Tech has participated in this global event, which promotes Open Access as a new norm in scholarship and research.

As part of Tech's campus-wide celebration, the Georgia Tech Library will host its annual Open Access General Lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 23 from 3 – 5 p.m. in the Klaus Advanced Computing Building, room 1116.

Dr. Jean-Claude Bradley, associate professor of chemistry and e-learning coordinator at Drexel University, will deliver a presentation titled “Open Notebook Science: Transparency in Research."

The presentation will outline strategies for collecting, processing, and disseminating chemical information as Open Data.

Bradley will discuss the following:

• examples involving melting point and solubility datasets and models
• demonstrate how Open Notebook Science (ONS) can be used to maintain full provenance information between the original lab notebook pages and associated raw data up to the point of use
• the use of web services which allows for data access and querying through a browser interface or Google Spreadsheets using Google App Scripts

A question and answer period, and an open discussion on the potential of ONS will follow the presentation.

Bradley leads the UsefulChem project, an initiative started in the summer of 2005 to make the scientific process as transparent as possible by publishing all research work in real time to a collection of public blogs, wikis, and other web pages.  He coined the term 'Open Notebook Science' to distinguish this approach from other more restricted forms of Open Science. In 2008, he created the Open Notebook Science Solubility Challenge to crowdsource the measurement of non-aqueous solubility.

Sponsored by Submeta, Sigma-Aldrich, Nature, and the Royal Society of Chemistry, the ONS Challenge has resulted in the publication of a book combining the results of 12 student award winners from the United States and the United Kingdom. Bradley also teaches undergraduate organic chemistry courses with most content freely available on public blogs, wikis, games, Second Life, and audio and video podcasts.

The Oct. 23 general lecture is free, and, in the spirit of the program and week-long celebration, open to all.

Visit the Open Access at Georiga Tech website for more information.