Universities should take action to support the sharing of educational resources, argues a new perspective publishing 24 October in the open access journal PLOS Biology. Open scholarship not only benefits society at large, argues author Erin McKiernan from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, but also fulfils universities’ core missions of knowledge dissemination, community engagement, and public good. It may also increase institutions’ visibility, funding, and recruitment power, and lead to better learning outcomes.