Utah State University (USU) has joined an emerging national trend and the ranks of a growing number of the US’ universities in adopting an official open access (OA) policy. USU’s University Libraries headed the effort.
The new OA policy - officially known at USU as Policy 535 - ensures that all employees at the University retain the ability to share their publications with colleagues, students and the public upon their publication. The policy was first unanimously approved by USU’s Faculty Senate in April, followed by approval by the President’s Executive Committee with the endorsement of USU President Stan Albrecht.
In adopting the policy, USU joins the ranks of universities that include Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Duke University and the University of Kansas, among others. Utah State is said to be among the leaders in public universities in this effort and is the first university in Utah to formally adopt a policy.
With USU’s approved policy, faculty members will be provided language to help amend their publishing contracts and retain some of the copyright to their works. Then, faculty will deposit their work in USU’s Open Access Institutional Repository - the Digital Commons - where it will become immediately and openly available to the world. The University Libraries’ Scholarly Communications Office (ScholarlyCommunications@usu.edu) will assist faculty with the process.
A policy waiver is available in cases where a researcher chooses to work with journals that require them to surrender their copyright.
The officially adopted policy and procedures are available online. The policy can be seen at the HR website and the procedures are at the University Libraries Open Access and the Digital Commons website.
