Open Access Policy Goes into Effect November 1

UCLA Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

To:  Administrative Officers, Deans, Department Chairs, Directors, Faculty, Vice Chancellors and Vice Provosts

Dear Colleagues:

We are pleased to inform you that on July 24, 2013, the Academic Council voted to adopt an Open Access Policy for Senate faculty across the University of California system. The policy goes into effect at UCLA, UC Irvine and UC San Francisco on November 1, 2013, and at the other campuses on November 1, 2014.

The Open Access Policy allows faculty members to maintain legal control over their research articles while making their work much more widely available to the public. The policy does not require faculty to publish in open access journals, or to pay fees or charges to publish; instead it commits faculty to making a version of each article available publicly in an open access repository.

Faculty can take advantage of this right by using UC’s eScholarship digital repository (or any other open access repository) to make a version of any article publicly and freely available worldwide. Faculty authors may opt out of the license for any given article, may delay the date of appearance of the article (“embargo” it), and may choose the terms of use that will be applied to each article (for example, whether it is for commercial or non-commercial reuse).

This policy has been under review by the Senate divisions and committees for two years and its implementation is a move of major significance. Policies like this one have been adopted by more than 175 universities but none as large, influential or productive as the University of California. The move signals to publishers that faculty want to see open access implemented on their own terms.

The California Digital Library and the campus libraries will assist faculty by providing a streamlined deposit system and tools for obtaining waivers and addenda if necessary.

Faculty can learn more about their rights and responsibilities under this policy at the UC Open Access Policy website, and the UCLA Library’s site offers additional information about the UCLA implementation. In addition, you can contact the UCLA library at oa@library.ucla.edu for assistance with questions concerning scholarly publication generally and this policy in particular.

We applaud the Senate’s vision in passing an Open Access Policy. Later this year, the UC Office of the President will consider extending the policy from Senate faculty to the entire UC community.

Sincerely,