By Prof. Maura Smale
2012 will go down in the books as a banner year for open access scholarly publishing. Spurred on by years of publishers’ rising prices and widening profit margins, academics around the world signed on to the Cost of Knowledge boycott and pledged to stop submitting articles to and reviewing for journals published by Elsevier, one of the largest scholarly journal publishers (http://www.thecostofknowledge.com). The Research Works Act, a bill that sought to roll back mandates from federal funding agencies that require the results of taxpayer-funded research to be made freely available online, was abandoned by its sponsors after it was revealed that Elsevier had donated to both Representatives’ campaigns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Works_Act). And the Open Access Hulk debuted on Twitter, keeping us informed (and entertained!) about open access happenings all year long (http://twitter.com/openaccesshulk).
Here in the library we also had a great year for open access in 2012. In February, prompted by the events of the “Academic Spring” described above as well as similar policies in place at other academic libraries, Library Department faculty adopted a pledge to publish our own research and scholarship open access whenever possible. Several other library departments at CUNY followed during the year, including Brooklyn College, City College, the Graduate Center, and Lehman College.
Here’s our new policy in its entirety (it’s also on our website):
http://library.citytech.cuny.edu/policies/openaccess.php
City Tech Library Faculty:
Statement on Open Access
The City Tech Library faculty believe that open access to scholarship is critical for scholarly communication and for the future of libraries. For that reason we pledge to make our own research freely available whenever possible by seeking publishers that have either adopted open access policies, publish contents online without restriction, and/or allow authors to self-archive their publications on the web. We pledge to link to and/or self-archive our publications to make them freely accessible.
Faculty librarians may submit their work to a publication that does not follow open access principles and will not allow self-archiving only if it is clearly the best or only option for publication; however, library faculty will actively seek out publishers that allow them to make their research available freely online and, when necessary, will negotiate with publishers to improve publication agreements. Further, we pledge to devote most of our reviewing and editing efforts to manuscripts destined for open access.
We celebrated Open Access Week at the City Tech Library (for the fourth year running!). This year library faculty offered an authors’ rights workshop titled: “You Know What You Write, But Do You Know Your Rights? Understanding and Protecting Your Rights as an Author,” which focused on how to make the most of our rights as scholars, researchers, and authors. We reviewed scholarly journal publishers’ copyright agreements and were appalled by the restrictions that many policies place on our work. We also discussed strategies for negotiating publishing contracts and preserving our rights to reproduce, distribute, and display the work we create.
If you missed out on the workshop in the Fall, never fear! We’re planning to offer it again in the Spring semester. If you’re interested in more information about the problems with traditional journal publishing and the promise of open access publishing, get in touch! Visit Open Access @ CUNY (http://openaccess.commons.gc.cuny.edu/) or email Prof. Maura Smale (msmale@citytech.cuny.edu).
Photo courtesy of biblioteekje
