Open Access & Author Rights:Growing Momentum for Change

Ellen Finnie Duranceau

Scholarly Publishing & Licensing Consultant MIT Libraries

ACRL NE SC SIG July 23, 2009

A Call To Action

Past norms and practical requirements for dissemination have led to practices of transferring control of access to and use of faculty work outside the academy, limiting the university’s and faculty members’ ability to ensure broad dissemination and wide use. Where the academy has relinquished the ability to manage its intellectual capital to best serve its needs and priorities, it should act to regain this capability.

--The University’s Role in the Dissemination of Research and Scholarship — A Call to Action, Feb. 2009 --AAU, CNI, NASULGC, ARL

Is this what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life? Asking publishers for permission to reuse my own work?--MIT Graduate Student, 2/18/09

Copyright Management Service Demand at MIT 2008 (of those aware of service)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Ugrad Grad Faculty PostDoc Research Overall

essential

very important

somewhat important

not important

What’s Wrong with the Current System?

• The Internet facilitates wide dissemination at low cost– Wide dissemination of knowledge furthers our

mission to promote scholarship

• But publisher business models built on restricted access– Prohibit flexible reuse, including reuse of an

author’s own work– Are manifested in restrictive terms in

contracts with university libraries

“The system has gotten out of balance,” “Journal business models are going to have to stop focusing so much on … this monopoly on the right of distribution, and instead focus on the places where they do provide value.”

“What we’re really talking about here is control of the scholarly record.”

--Prof. Hal AbelsonDigits, a Wall Street Journal blog

Copyright is a stronger point of control in the digital environment

• Contracts restrict access

• “Rent” vs. “Own” Model

• Performing Advanced Indexing, Analysis Prohibited

Typical Publisher Copyright Agreements Control

Whether Author:

• May use articles in teaching

• May reuse the text, charts or figures in future work

• May distribute copies of the article to others

• May post a copy of the article

Copyright Transfer

COPYRIGHT

is a bundle of 5 rights:

• Right to Reproduce

the work

• Right to Prepare

Derivative Works

• Right to Distribute

the work

• Right to Display

the work Publicly

• Right to Perform

the work Publicly

Transferring Copyright / Retaining Copyright

• Two typical scenarios:• Agreement transfers copyright to publisher

• Publisher grants back some rights

• Agreement allows author to retain copyright • Exclusive right granted to publisher but for specified for type

or timing of publication• License to publish

• Coauthors: – Each co-author in a jointly written article owns the

copyright. Under U.S. copyright law, any co-author has the right to grant permission to others.

Example of Publisher Agreement Restrictions

Wiley’s Author Agreement:• SHARING ON WEB:

– Author may post author's accepted version on personal website, but not an institutional or subject website/server, like DSpace or arXiv.

• REUSE IN PUBLICATIONS: – For publication, author may reuse only selected

figures and tables and up to 250 words of text - not to include the abstract - in another work, and only if it is part of an edited work published by a third party.

Faculty Comments: Copyright Transfer Agreements

• “We are woefully uninformed…who can we ask about copyright agreements?” - History faculty

• “What is that thing I sign without thinking about it when I finally get the referees to agree that my work is worthy of their precious journal? Don't tell me I need to learn about copyright law now, I have enough trouble with non-linear MHD theory!” – Physics researcher

• We are “not comfortable” “granting exclusive rights to our work.” -- Math faculty

Exercise: Author Copyright Agreements

• Evaluate publisher agreement

• Determine whether you would sign as is

• If not, what would you change

• Read the actual agreement

• Sherpa can provide interpretation/other info:– http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

Exercise: Author Copyright Agreements

• Elsevier: – Policy:

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/copyright

– Agreement: http://www.elsevier.com/framework_authors/pdfs/JPA_example.pdf

• ALA: – http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/sundry/

rightspermissions/divisioncopyright.cfm

• American Chemical Society:– http://pubs.acs.org/userimages/ContentEditor/1218205118705/

interactive_copyright.pdf

SHERPA Romeo Database

How to Retain Rights

• Make changes on agreement

• Use authors’ addenda:– Science Commons amendment

generator

Beyond Individual Negotiation

To move to a better system, we need processes through which faculty can play a role as a collective body, not just as individuals. --MIT faculty

Major Author Rights Initiatives: 2008-09

Harvard

MIT

MIT Faculty Open Access Publishing Committee: Fall 2008 --

Charge

• Appointed by Faculty Chair

• Consider ways that MIT faculty scholarly publications are disseminated

• Pay particular attention to open access

• Stimulate faculty discussions

• If change seems appropriate, bring faculty resolution in the spring

Major Open Access Initiatives: MIT

• How MIT Faculty told the story– The traditional scholarly publication

environment is increasingly problematic• For universities• For many faculty

– MIT faculty should increase open access to our publications

– We need a process where faculty can act as a body, not just as individuals.

MIT Faculty Open Access Policy

• Adopted by unanimous vote of the faculty – March 18, 2009

• “Each Faculty member grants to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nonexclusive permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles for the purpose of open dissemination.”

[emphasis added]

See: http://info-libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/faculty-and-researchers/mit-faculty-open-access-policy/

What is the Policy? License Grant to MIT

• Grants MIT nonexclusive permission to exercise all rights under copyright– Provided articles not sold for a profit

• Copyright is not transferred

• Exists prior to any publisher copyright agreement

Scope of the Policy

• Only scholarly articles – Completed after the policy was adopted – Author’s final version

• Only faculty authors

• Opt outs accepted automatically– On a per-paper basis

Implementation

• Policy implementation: FCLS

• Administering Policy: Libraries

• 2 approaches for content recruitment:– Outreach to departments, labs & centers– Publisher negotiations

Q.

AcknowledgementsFlickr photos:• Princeton University

by Yakinodi• Under Lock and Key

by Pulpolux !!!• Harvard University, Cambridge

By somebody_Other Resources:• The University’s Role in the Dissemination of

Research and Scholarship — A Call to Action:http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/disseminating-research-feb09.pdf