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Prologue

Among the enduring themes of Duke's strategic plan are knowledge in the service of society and affordability and access, key components of our goal as a research university to create, disseminate and preserve knowledge. In Spring 2009, Provost Peter Lange established the Digital Futures Task Force to propose a set of measures that Duke University can undertake to further these ends.

The proposed Open Access policy would provide the legal basis for Duke to preserve the work of Duke scholars in a permanent digital repository and to provide access to that work to anyone who seeks it. The policy is intended to serve the faculty's interests by allowing articles to receive open distribution, simplifying authors retention of distribution rights, aiding preservation, and providing unified action to discourage publishers from rejecting articles because they will be available in open access. In any case in which the license works against the interest of a faculty member, the policy allows for waiver of the license or delay of distribution.

While the precise mechanisms by which this will work have not yet been fully developed, the intention is that this policy will not result in more work for the faculty, and it is worth a relatively small investment because, in many fields, work published in journals is not accessible to those who do not subscribe to the journal or whose libraries don't subscribe.

By joining research universities such as Harvard, Stanford and MIT as well as funding agencies including NIH in adopting an open access policy and building digital repository service, Duke becomes part of a growing and important movement toward a new mode of open access scholarly publication.

Policy Text

The Faculty of Duke University is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In addition to the public benefit of such dissemination, this policy is intended to serve faculty interests by promoting greater reach and impact for articles, simplifying authors’ retention of distribution rights, and aiding preservation. In keeping with these commitments, the Faculty adopts the following policy.

Each Faculty member grants to Duke University permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to reproduce and distribute those articles for the purpose of open dissemination. In legal terms, each Faculty member grants to Duke University a nonexclusive, irrevocable, royalty-­‐free, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do so, provided that the articles are not sold. The Duke faculty author remains the copyright owner unless that author chooses to transfer the copyright to a publisher.

The policy will apply to all scholarly articles authored or co-­‐authored while the person is a member of the Faculty except for any articles completed before the adoption of this policy and any articles for which the Faculty member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy. The Provost or Provost's designate will waive application of the license for a particular article or delay access for a specified period of time upon written request by a Faculty member.

To assist the University in distributing the scholarly articles, each faculty member will make available, as of the date of publication or upon request, an electronic copy of the final author’s version of the article at no charge to a designated representative of the Provost’s Office in an appropriate format (such as PDF) specified by the Provost's Office. The Provost's Office will make the article available to the public in Duke’s open-­‐access repository. In cases where the Duke license has been waived or an embargo period has been mutually agreed, the article may be archived in a Duke repository without open access for the period of the embargo, or permanently in cases of waiver.

The Office of the Provost, in consultation with the Executive Committee of the Academic Council, will be responsible for interpreting this policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the Faculty from time to time.

The Faculty calls upon the Library Council and Duke University Libraries to develop and monitor a plan for a service or mechanism that would render compliance with the policy as convenient for the faculty as possible.

The policy and service model will be reviewed after three years and a report presented to the Faculty.