TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– This paper seeks to highlight the recent open access (OA) initiatives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).Design/methodology/approach– The paper finds that the UAE open access initiatives may be the beginning of advances towards encouraging contributing to OA peer‐reviewed article publication for enabling knowledge creation. The OA initiative appears to be a harbinger of things to come particularly at UAE institutions of higher learning where most of the academic research happens. For librarians, the time has come to be involved with the creation of institutional repositories as their roles evolve.Findings– The research is based on literature rather than a field study. This means an actual survey may be more informative in the future.Research limitations/implications– It is important for librarians and the academic community to understand what OA means in order to both contribute and benefit from it.Practical implications– OA as a concept implies giving the responsibility to librarians to give more advice to patrons about effective use of OA resources.Originality/value– This paper reinforces many of the concepts being discussed regarding OA initiatives both in the UAE and globally. VL - 114 IS - 5/6 SN - 0307-4803 DO - 10.1108/03074801311326885 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/03074801311326885 AU - Mavodza Judith PY - 2013 Y1 - 2013/01/01 TI - A review of the open access concept in the UAE T2 - New Library World PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 259 EP - 266 Y2 - 2024/04/23 ER -