UConn Library Staff Open Access Policy — Policy

I. Preamble 

The staff of the University of Connecticut Library are committed to disseminating the fruits of research and scholarship as widely as possible and to lowering barriers to access. We recognize the manifold benefits of making scholarship openly accessible to the people of Connecticut, the United States, and the world. Therefore we adopt the following Library Open Access Policy. 

II. Key Definitions 

Authors: all staff members of the University of Connecticut Library (excluding only student and temporary employees and other classes as determined by the Dean of the Library) who author or coauthor published Scholarly Works as defined in this policy (see below). 

Final Version: A digital draft of a Scholarly Work after it has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication, but before it has been typeset and formatted by the publisher.  

Open Access Repository: Any online platform, such as OpenCommons@UConn, which the University of Connecticut uses to host and disseminate the Scholarly Works. The University at its discretion may adopt other platforms or use multiple platforms to host the Scholarly Works. 

Scholarly Works: peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and other scholarly works. This policy is not intended to apply to whole books, book and product reviews, encyclopedia entries, op-eds, notes or slide decks from conference or workshop presentations, fiction and poetry, or any nonscholarly works. Note that the Library’s research guides are already published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license. 

III. Grant of License 

Library staff members (“authors”) grant the University of Connecticut nonexclusive permission to make freely available their scholarly works and exercise the copyright in those works for the purpose of providing free and open access to those Works. In legal terms, authors grant to the University a nonexclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each scholarly work in any medium, for the purpose of making those works widely and freely available in one or more open access repositories, provided that the Works are appropriately attributed to the authors and are not exploited by the University for commercial gain, and to authorize others to exercise these rights on the University’s behalf. 

This grant of license in no way limits the rights of the author(s) as the copyright holder(s) of the work. The Policy may be waived at the author’s request if the author’s publication agreements are incompatible with this Policy. Authors retain the copyright to their Scholarly Works and the right to publish their Works in venues of their choice through use of a waiver. 

IV. Scope & Waiver 

This Policy applies to all Scholarly Works (as defined in the Definitions section above) produced while the author is a Library staff member, except for any Works published prior to the adoption of this policy and any Works for which the staff member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy. This Policy applies to all members of the Library staff, including staff at the UConn Health Sciences Library, but excluding student and temporary employees and other classes as determined by the Dean of the Library. 

Designated staff will consult with authors to explore options or negotiate with publishers. On written request by authors, the Dean of the Library or designee will waive this Policy for specific Works. Authors may also choose to delay open access for up to 12 months after publication. 

V. Deposit 

Each author will provide the University a digital copy of the Author’s Final Version of each Scholarly Work in an appropriate format (such as PDF) no later than the date of the Work’s publication. Authors will submit Scholarly Works directly to OpenCommons@UConn or to a designated contact person. Submission shall be made as convenient as feasible for authors. 

Following receipt, the University will make the Work available to the public in an appropriate open access repository. The University will reformat, migrate, add or edit metadata, and make other changes as necessary to render the Work as accessible and discoverable as possible. 

If the work is already freely available through a non-UConn repository (e.g., the LIS Scholarship Archive) or as a gold open access publication, authors should submit to OpenCommons@UConn the metadata and a persistent URL to the work where it resides on this non-UConn platform. 

VI. Oversight 

The Scholarly Communication Coordinating Group (SCCG), made up of Library staff members  appointed by the Dean of the Library, is responsible for interpreting this Open Access Policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the staff from time to time, in consultation with senior leadership and the Dean. The policy will be reviewed three years after its adoption, and as needed thereafter, and a report on utilization and dissemination will be presented to the Dean and the Library staff at that time. 

Rights Statement 

This Open Access Policy and accompanying FAQs are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. You are free to share and adapt the material as long as you credit the University of Connecticut Library and comply with the other terms of this license.