Scholarly Publishing News

Earlier this month, Princeton University faculty voted unanimously to adopt an open access policy. A report written by Princeton’s Ad-hoc Committee to Study Open Access stated the following:

Much of the faculty’s scholarly output is in the form of articles published in refereed journals and conferences; the faculty generally publish these scholarly articles without expectation of direct monetary compensation. Some journals (though by no means all) then restrict access via expensive subscriptions prices and other restrictive practices. An “open-access” policy is intended to make the faculty’s scholarly articles, published in journals and conference proceedings, available as well to a wider public than can afford to pay for journal subscriptions. In addition, an open-access policy permits the University to run an “open-access repository” where the faculty can conveniently make those articles available.

Several of our peer Universities have adopted open-access policies with these goals in mind; we studied some of these policies before coming to consensus on the policy we recommend below.

We recommend a revision to the Rules and Procedures of the Faculty that will give the University a nonexclusive right to make available copies of scholarly articles written by its faculty, unless a professor specifically requests a waiver for particular articles. The University authorizes professors to post copies of their articles on their own web sites or on University web sites, or in other not-for-a-fee venues. Of course, the faculty already had exclusive rights in the scholarly articles they write; the main effect of this new policy is to prevent them from giving away all their rights when they publish in a journal.

The ‘peer universities’ that have already adopted open access policies include Harvard and MIT.  It will be interesting to see how publishers respond as an increasing number of universities adopt open access mandates.

Summit is SFU’s institutional repository. Managed by the SFU Library, Summit has been developed to showcase and preserve the research, scholarship and artistic works of SFU faculty and graduate students. It’s a place to bring together the scholarship of SFU researchers and was developed as part of a broader open access strategy, recognizing that many faculty and researchers wish to share their work with the largest possible audience.

Benefits of Summit:

• A long term, stable home for your materials. The SFU Library manages Summit and does the job of maintaining and preserving the work for you, and is committed to maintaining access to your work.
• It’s easy to put your work in Summit. Send the Library your work or opt to add your work yourself. Contact summit@sfu.ca to find out how.
• Summit is structured so that the information can easily be harvested by search engines such as Google and Google Scholar in a way that is not possible on a personal or departmental website.
• Summit accommodates many formats including text, images, data, audio and video.
• Open Access. Adding your work to Summit removes barriers for scholars, students and policy makers around the world wanting access to your research.
• You keep all the rights to your work.