UConn Library Staff Open Access Policy — Basics

Once you’ve published or been accepted to publish a scholarly work that fits within the criteria, simply upload the final accepted version of your work to OpenCommons@UConn, or request a waiver to opt out of the policy. 

The open access policy applies to peer-reviewed articles and other significant scholarly works (see the Policy for details.) This policy does not apply to whole books, popular articles, fiction, poetry, encyclopedia entries, ephemeral writings, lecture notes, lecture videos, or other copyrighted works. While these types of works are not included in the policy, authors are encouraged to add them to OpenCommons as well. Questions? Please contact scholcomm[at]uconn.edu.  

Scholarly works published prior to the date of adoption are not included in this policy.  Neither does this policy apply to any scholarly works published after leaving UConn Library employment

For each publication, staff can get a waiver by using a simple form, available at the policy website. Any author can automatically get a waiver as needed. However staff should attempt to gain publisher agreement to the terms of the policy. Waivers should be for exceptions only, while the policy as a whole is still in effect. The waiver is available at this link.  

The OA policy does not deal with the content of scholarly work. That is between the author(s) and the publisher. The OA policy focuses only on making scholarly content available to potential readers through the institutional repository.

Library staff will provide a copy of their scholarly works to the University by uploading the PDF to OpenCommons@UConn. If the PDF is already available elsewhere on an open access basis, authors are asked to submit the metadata and a link to the PDF wherever it resides. If the publisher does not accept this open access policy, the author may opt out of the policy for the work in question. 

The submitted version of the paper should be the author’s final version of the work (see Definitions below.) Publishers may refer to this version as the “author’s accepted manuscript,” but others call it the “post-print.” This is generally the author’s final prepared document,which contains all post-peer review revisions adopted and with all tables and figures attached. 

No. Under US copyright law, and absent a contract stating otherwise, any joint author can give nonexclusive permission to copy and distribute the work. All issues affecting co-authors should be discussed as part of the writing and publication process. 

An open access waiver is a form any author can choose to use to waive the policy requirements for a specific piece of writing. Waivers give authors freedom of choice in where they publish, as they allow publication in venues which do not agree with the institutional open access policy. A waiver must be filed for each journal article or other scholarly work. An embargo is a time delay before a work is made openly accessible – often six months or a year. “Delayed open access” uses embargos so that scholarly works can be published in a traditional subscription based outlet and then, after a period of time, a version of the article is made open access in a repository like PubMed Central or Open Commons. Embargos are also used the delay public access to theses and dissertations posted in OpenCommons.