From: Kathleen Shearer <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 06:35:29 -0400

Sorry for any cross-posting

-----

The Open Access Licenses and Agreements Task Force is pleased to
announce the release of a new report, Open Access Clauses in
Publishers' Licenses: Current State and Lessons Learned. The report
presents the results of a review of licenses that secure the rights
for authors and/or their institutions to deposit published articles
into an OA repository.

As Open Access (OA) policies and laws are being adopted world-wide,
the scholarly community is shifting its efforts from advocacy towards
practical implementation and support. One of the major routes for
making articles open access is through OA repositories. However the
variety and lack of clarity of publishers’ policies regarding article
deposit can be a significant barrier to author compliance of OA
policies.

In order to overcome this barrier, some organizations have
successfully negotiated authors' or deposit rights with publishers in
the context of purchasing content licenses. This report documents the
existing OA licensing language that has been implemented by
organization around the world and presents some suggestions for their
successful adoption. The report concludes that OA clauses offer a
feasible option for institutions to address some of the obstacles to
article deposit into repositories.

For more information, please contact Kathleen Shearer, Executive
Director, Confederation of Open Access Repositories.

About the Task Force

Open Access Agreements and Licensing Task Force is a multi-stakeholder
group initiated and supported by COAR (Confederation of Open Access
Repositories), with members representing a number of different types
of organizations (libraries, licensing agencies, library associations,
and open access groups) who have a common interest in promoting
sustainable and effective practices for open access.