From: Andree Rathemacher <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:47:45 -0400 Colleagues, Yesterday, the University of Rhode Island Faculty Senate passed an institutional open-access policy. The text of the policy is available here: http://bit.ly/1481n38 and below. The policy will become final when signed by the university president. University of Rhode Island Open-Access Policy The Faculty of the University of Rhode Island is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, the Faculty adopts the following policy: Each Faculty member grants to the University of Rhode Island permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles. More specifically, each Faculty member grants to the University of Rhode Island a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, provided that the articles are not sold, and to authorize others to do the same. The policy applies to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored while the person is a member of the Faculty except for any articles completed before the adoption of this policy and any articles for which the Faculty member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy. The Faculty Senate or Faculty Senate’s designate will, on behalf of the University, waive application of the license for a particular article or delay access for a specified period of time upon express direction by a Faculty member. Each Faculty member will provide an electronic copy of the author’s final version of each article no later than the date of its publication at no charge to the University Libraries acting as the representative of the Faculty Senate in an appropriate format (such as PDF) specified by the University Libraries. The University Libraries may make the article available to the public in an open-access repository. The Faculty Senate Library Committee will be responsible for developing an implementation plan for this policy that has faculty interests in mind, interpreting this policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the Faculty Senate. The policy will be reviewed after three years and a report presented to the Faculty Senate. -- Andrée Rathemacher | Professor / Head, Acquisitions University Libraries, University of Rhode Island | (401) 874-5096 | [log in to unmask]