The University Library announced a panel discussion and two other programs in conjunction with Open Access Week, a global event now entering its sixth year.

The UC Davis programs, free and open to the public, offer an opportunity “to discuss and learn about the potential benefits of open access publishing,” said the organizers, librarians Raquel Abad (Blaisdell Medical Library) and Phoebe Ayers (Physical Sciences and Engineering Library).

“As the UC community debates open access mandates, faces federal data sharing requirements, and, along with the rest of the worldwide research and academic community, debates how to work with an ever-increasing amount of scholarly information, Open Access Week is more relevant and important than ever,” they said.

The schedule:

• Should You Publish in Open Access Journals? — Short introduction to open access publishing, after which UC Davis neurology professor Michael Rogawski will engage the audience in a discussion of the pros and cons. 3-4 p.m. Monday (Oct. 22), 1204 Education Building, Sacramento campus.

• Open Data and Open Access —­ Panel discussion with UC Davis’ MacKenzie Smith, university librarian, and Professor Jonathan Eisen among the participants. 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 24), Nelle Branch Room, second floor, Shields Library.

Eisen is chair of the editorial advisory board for PLoS Biology, a peer-reviewed, open access journal. He is affiliated with the departments of Evolution and Ecology, and Molecular and Cellular Biology, and the Genome Center.

The other panelists: Carly Strasser, data curation project manager for the California Digital Library, and who formerly worked with a team of scientists associated with Data Observation for Earth, or DataONE; and Timothy Vollmer, policy and data manager at Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge, through free, legal tools.

• Data Management for Researchers: Organizing, Describing and Sharing Your Data — In this workshop, Strasser will introduce researchers to basic data management principles and demonstrate tools to organize and share data. 2-3 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 24), Library Instruction Lab, first floor, Shields Library.

More information is available online. Questions and RSVPs should be directed to Ayers, (530) 752-9948 or psayers@ucdavis.edu or Raquel Abad, (916) 734-3870) or rjabad@ucdavis.edu.