SPARC Innovator: The Open Access Button | SPARC

"For creating the Open Access Button, which tracks how often researchers hit pay walls and attempts to connect users with freely accessible copies of articles, SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)  is honoring Carroll and McArthur, both 22, with its first Innovator Award of 2015. 'What allowed Joe and David to follow through on the idea was their passion, commitment, and unwillingness to take no for an answer,' says Nick Shockey, director of SPARC’s the Right to Research Coalition. Dubbed affectionately by SPARC staff as 'The Button Boys,' the young pair of British researchers assembled an international team of volunteers to develop and launch the Open Access Button in the November of 2013.  The student-led project came to fruition on a shoe- string budget with minimal finances, but substantial in-kind support ..."