The Open Neuroscience Initiative: A Free-to-Access and -Adopt Digital Textbook for Undergraduate Students of Introductory Neuroscience.

The steadily-rising cost of higher education is a tremendous financial burden, and the purchasing of textbooks represents a significant cost of higher education. Financial hardship exaggerates wealth disparities, decreasing the diversity of learners. Additionally, a growing interest in the field of neuroscience among the population at large has increased the demand for easily accessible learning resources. The Open Neuroscience Initiative (ONI) is an open educational resource (OER) that covers several major topics that may be addressed in an undergraduate introductory neuroscience course. The ONI is a collaboratively-written and -edited free to download digital textbook in English that replaces the traditional print textbooks that may be used in typical introductory neuroscience, non-major brain and behavior, or physiological psychology courses. Adoption of the ONI for these types of classes therefore decreases the financial burden that college students face and increases inclusivity, improving accessibility to the knowledge acquired in a college undergraduate introductory neuroscience course.