UConn Library Staff Open Access Policy — Benefits

This policy enables authors to safeguard their rights and disseminate their scholarship more widely for greater impact and readership. Under this policy, authors retain their copyright for scholarly articles and other works. Posting scholarly works into an open access repository increases readership and citation rates.  

 This policy exemplifies the Library’s Strategic Framework. The policy is an “innovative way to share and disseminate the research of UConn to the world.” It reflects the Framework’s “commitment to open, accessible initiatives and materials” by enabling free online access worldwide to library staff’s scholarship. The policy empowers staff by strengthening their rights as authors and letting their work be read, cited, and used widely. Finally, it “cultivates best practices” in librarianship, as hundreds of peer institutions nationwide have adopted similar policies. 

This policy reflects University of Connecticut’s mission statement. Under this policy, UConn research and scholarship are disseminated as widely as possible, which improves UConn’s “national and international recognition.” Exposure in the OpenCommons@UConn repository assists authors to “create and disseminate knowledge by means of scholarly and creative achievements.”