Open Access Policy – Formulation and Implementation

by

Dr. Helena Asamoah-Hassan

at ZULC Roundtable held at University of Zimbabwe , Harare, on 22nd November 2012

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Summary

• Introduction.• What should be considered when Formulating the Policy.• What to do before and for the Policy to be Adopted• What should be done for and during Implementation of OA Policy.• Sample OA Policy

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Open Access (OA) Policy - Introduction• Authors, key to the success of OA.

• Registry of OA policies has 200 institutions, 54 funders and 98 thesis mandates . http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup

• OA is an opportunity for published research to be widely available for use and re-use for non-profit purposes as long as the author is acknowledged.

• OA Policy may be adopted by executive decision, legislation, or approval of faculty before implementation by the institution, but approval by faculty is the best option

•  OA Policy is geared toward the researcher as author to require him to deposit his/her final peer-reviewed manuscript in an IR and encourage him/her to publish in OA journals.

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OA Policy - Introduction• Some authors are reluctant to give their final peer-reviewed manuscript for

‘green’ preferring ‘gold’ publishing.

• Process is as follows:

- identification of the issues as stake

- consultation with stakeholders

- formulation of the policy

- adoption of the policy

- implementation of the policy

• Repository staff need to do metadata editing, check peer-review and copyright status of articles submitted for archiving.

• Academics may ignore the Policy, so gentle reminders to deposit and mediated archiving by the Library will be very useful.

•

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Formulating the Policy…

• What Policy should do• Policy that gives institution automatic rights of retention of

scholarly works – enable authors to use and re-use their works.•  Policy that commits institution to make the scholarly works

publicly available – enables institution to effectively disseminate works for great impact.

•  Policy that respects choice of the author, ensures academic freedom and copyright.

Statement of goals• Do not limit the Policy by using words like “only” “exclusively” or

“solely” or provide a list of advantages of OA. Leave it open.•  Do not use words in the introduction to the Policy that may restrict

the institution, authors or users in the use of the work.

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Formulating the Policy… Type of Policy

•  The Policy has to grant the institution some non-exclusive rights to future research works of staff

•  The Policy must require deposit in the institution’s repository.

•  The Policy must provide a window for waiver or opt-out for authors.

•  The Policy must include information that the work will be made OA, at least the metadata, until publishers permissions are secured.

Grant of Rights

• Policy should not use phrases like, “will grant” or “must grant” but rather emphatic like “each staff member grants” or “hereby grants”

• Policy should not use words like “asking” or “encouraging” or “requiring” staff to retain certain rights - this releases staff from the burden of negotiating with publishers in signing agreements when they publish.

• The inclusion of ‘grant of rights’ covers the permission or license to use the works on Open Access.

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Formulating the Policy…

Deposit in the Repository• Inclusion of self-archiving or submitting the work for mediated

archiving in the institution’s repository.

Deposit Version •  Inclusion that

- it’s the final version of the author’s peer-reviewed manuscript.

- journal version to be deposited when published if publisher

allows it.•  Publisher’s version only replaces author’s final version when the re-

use rights are the same as the authors’ final version.

 

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Formulating the Policy…

Timing for Deposit

Inclusion that the work should be deposited not later than the date of

publication, unless the author says that there is an embargo for a while.

Waivers

Inclusion that there will be waivers granted if required.

Embargo

Inclusion that embargoes may be requested but the work should be

deposited at the requested time.

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Formulating the Policy…

Content Coverage

Inclusion that:

-Scholarly works should be deposited.

-Books and works attracting royalties must be excluded.

An annotation should be made to define what scholarly works are.

Time Coverage

Inclusion that Policy is not be retrospective. However if staff wish to

submit earlier works that can be allowed.

Transfer of Rights

Inclusion that the transfer of rights to others by adding the “clause

and to authorize others to do the same”•  

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Formulating the Policy…

Responsibility for Implementation• Inclusion of the group or unit that will be responsible for

implementation.• Policy should be brief. The implementing group or unit will work out

the details of implementation.

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Adoption of Policy• Adoption by the academic/research body not by the administration.

•  Important to have academics leading the campaign for the policy

•  Important to educate and inform academics of the contents of the policy especially the fact that:

-works should be deposited in an OA repository not to OA journal and

it does not stop them from publishing in any journal.

  -waivers may be granted.

•  Important for academics to be educated/informed through face-to-face meetings during the drafting process.

•  Important to provide examples to academics of existing policies in

similar institutions to encourage them.

•  Important to be patient with academics in the process of drafting and adoption of the policy.

•  

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Implementation of Policy…

Introduction• OA policy must respect the moral and legal rights linked to

authorship and scholarship.•  A committee needs to be put in place to monitor the implementation

and make suggestions for improvement when necessary.•  Policy may have to be re-launched or revised after some time to

accommodate some new needs and ensure good success.•  Some infrastructure from several stakeholders necessary to make it

a success.•  Draft may have to go through several adjustments in the

formulation process. •  Success may take time to be seen.•  Implementation may face some challenges so patience in needed. •  

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Implementation of Policy…

Actual Implementation•  Incentives may need to be provided for authors to submit their works,

including export of publication of webpage and tracking of the usage of their work, paying of APC to enable immediate archiving to the repository.

• Mediated archiving to encourage authors to submit.

Repository Presence

The institution must have a repository in place or ready to take off.

Affirmation of Policy

Process of submission must enable spaces for authors to sign to affirm the policy

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Implementation of Policy…Acquisition of Waivers

Provision should be made in the repository where Faculty can process

waivers.

Multiple Deposits

The repository should harvest a copy rather than re-deposit when a

work is archived in another repository.

Internal use of Deposited works

Deposited works to be considered for promotion, tenure, evaluation

processes and research assessment.

Indexing of Repository• Repository must register with relevant directories OpenDOAR,

ROAR, OAI-PMH, etc.•  Repository must use software that allows crawling by search

engines.

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Implementation of Policy…

Withdrawals from Repository

This must be complied with when request from author or publisher is

made.

Populating the Repository•  Advocacy and education for OA and for submission• Copyright support to authors • Use of electronic deposit media- OAI-PMH, SWORD etc. is good• Ensuring ease of use – software, instructions etc.

 

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Sample Policy To enable (name of institution) to disseminate the results of research carried out in the University by

members of staff and students, as widely as possible, to demonstrate the academic and research value

of the university,

The (name of institution ) adopts the following policy:

Each member of staff and student grants to the (name of institution ) permission to make available his

or her scholarly works ,full text ,while still holding the copyright of such work. In legal terms, each

member of staff and student grants the (name of institution ) a non exclusive, irrevocable, and paid up

worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly

works in any medium provided that the work is not sold for profit and to authorize other to do the same.

The Policy will apply to all scholarly works authored or co-authored by the person, for the period when

he or she is in the employment of (name of institution ), unless the author has entered into an

incompatible licensing or assignment agreement. The Vice Chancellor or his representative may waive

application of the policy or delay access for a particular scholarly work upon a written request by the staff

member or student, indicating the need.

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Sample Policy

Scholarly work includes works meant for presentation or publication in electronic or print

media and any other works relating to the author’s academic or professional activities

that he or she wishes to include to assist (name of institution ) to disseminate the

scholarly work . The member of staff or student will make available an electronic copy of

his or her final version in pdf format immediately it is published to the University Main

Library at no charge.  The University Library will make the scholarly work available to the

public in an open access repository.

The Vice-Chancellor’s Office will be responsible for interpreting this policy, resolving

disputes relating to its interpretation and application and recommend future changes when

necessary.  The Policy takes immediate effect, it will be reviewed after five years and a

report presented to the member of staff and student body and through the Academic

Board.  The (name of institution) encourages its staff and students to publish their

scholarly works in accredited open access journal and strongly recommends the

avoidance of copyright transfer.• http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/

•  

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Resources• Armbruster. Chris(2011) Open Access policy implementation: first results

compared. Open Access policy implementation: first results compared. Learned Publishing 2011, 24(3)

• DFID Research Open and Enhanced Access Policy: Implementation guide, July 2012. openaccess@dfid.gov.uk

• Gray, Eve (2007) Achieving Research Impact for Development -A Critique of Research Dissemination Policy in South Africa, with Recommendations for Policy Reform. IPF Policy Paper - Open Information Policy Working Group 2007. http://www.policy.hu

• Shieber, Stuart and Suber,Peter (2012). Good practices for university OA policies. October 2012. http://bit.ly/goodoa or cyber.law.harvard.edu/...for _university_open-access_policies

• Shieber, Stuart(2010). A model Open –Access Policy. April. http://osc.hul.harvard.edu/

• http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/

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Thank you

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