Department Policy Number
Effective Date
November 15, 2006
Purpose
Provision of access to information and knowledge is a defining feature of both
the classical and modern university. High subscription costs charged by some
journal owners are causing drastic cuts in the number of subscriptions to scholarly
journals available to academics either personally or in libraries. This restriction
on access is of concern to both professional scholars and the general public.
At the same time, the Web has opened up access to information at a very low
cost. These two factors create an opportunity for Athabasca University (AU)
to make a public commitment to Open Access research publishing.
Publishing in an Open Access journal has always been a right at AU; however,
making one's research products available to the general public should be equally
encouraged, especially in an 'open' university.
Definitions
| Open Access | Adapted from the
2003 Berlin Declaration found at http://oa.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html Open access contributions must satisfy at least one of two conditions: |
|
| 1. | Distributing in
an open access publication in which the author(s) and right holder(s) of
such contributions grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide,
right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and
display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in
any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution
of authorship (community standards, will continue to provide the mechanism
for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible use of the published
work, as they do now). |
|
| 2. | A complete version of the work
and all supplemental materials, in an appropriate standard electronic format
is deposited (and thus published) in at least one online repository using
technical standards (such as the Open Archive definitions) that is supported
and maintained by an academic institution, scholarly society, government
agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open
access, unrestricted distribution, inter operability, and long-term archiving. |
|
| Digital Repository | A "collection
capturing and preserving the intellectual output of a single or multi-university
community" (The
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition [SPARC] found
at http://www.sparceurope.org) |
|
| Self Archiving | The process of making documents, where the copyright may belong to another person or organization but that are made publicly accessible, into a digital repository. | |
Policy
AU requests that faculty, academic and professional staff deposit an electronic
copy of any published research articles (as elsewhere accepted for publication)
in an AU repository. The contract with the publisher determines whether the
article is restricted (lives in the repository as a record of the AU's research
but is not accessible online by searchers) or open access (accessible online
by searchers).
Other
| 1. | AU faculty, academic
and professional staff are encouraged to contact the copyright holder and
request permission to publish the research concurrently in an open-access
format. |
| 2. | Nothing in this
policy shall contradict the AUGC - AUFA Terms and Conditions. |
| 3. | The type of repository
mentioned in the policy shall conform to international standards for Open
Access. See Budapest Open Access Initiative found at http://www.soros.org/openaccess. |
| 4. | Other published
or unpublished creative works are welcome for inclusion. |
| 5. | Academic and professional staff are encouraged to post previously-published works. |
Regulation
N/A
Procedure
Procedures will be determined in consultation with the AU Library.
Approved
by
Athabasca University Academic Council, Motion No. 199-6, November 15, 2006
Amended Date/Motion No.
Related References, Policies,
and Procedures
This policy should be reviewed every two years.
Applicable Legislation/Regulation
Responsible Position/Department
Office of Research Services
Keywords
 |
K.
Zimmermann, Office of the University Secretariat, March 2007
|