Open Access Button project starts work on Version 2.0

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The Open Access Button, which enables people to log when they hit paywalls to scholarly content and to find alternative routes to that content, is seeking £20,000 of funding for Version 2.0 of the tool, which is planned for launch in this October's Open Access Week.

The Open Access Button was founded by Joseph McArthur and David Carroll and an early version, built by a team of volunteer developers, was launched in October 2013.

The founders say on their fundraising page, 'So far we’ve mapped over 6500 moments of this injustice, but we know that this is just the beginning. There are stories of patients looking for information on their condition and treatment, students trying to do their homework, and researchers trying to advance our knowledge of the world we live in.

'With your support we can finish building the next version of the Open Access Button, Button 2.0, in time for a release during Open Access Week.'

With the new release of the button, they say that they have 'focused on creating ways to connect people with the research they need and use research in completely different ways. We’ve worked with the most innovative people and organisations, like Wikipedia and others from around the world.'

McArthur, one of the co-founders of and co-lead on the Open Access Button project, told Research Information, 'All the money from the campaign will go directly to building the full version of the Open Access Button which will really help push for open access and improve the scholarly publishing system.'

He went on to explain that 'We'd like to use the data generally to make change and are working on campaigns to do that. This involves trying to use the data in interesting ways, for example making leader boards, different types of maps, grouping the data by congressional region and more. Really the sky is the limit on that area. Everything, as far as is reasonable will also be openly licensed as well so others can do things we haven't thought of.'