Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Friday, May 04, 2007

U of Illinois adopts an author addendum

If you remember, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) created an Author Addendum back in February 2007.  Now the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of 13 CIC member institutions, has adopted the addendum.  Here's the announcement in full from the UIUC news bureau, May 3, 2007 (scroll to the bottom):

The senate approved an addendum to publication agreements for authors from universities such as the UI who are members of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. The addendum would give authors and their institutions more control over the use and distribution of published works, such as archiving of their work in open access repositories. Use of the addenda by Urbana faculty members would facilitate the development of the Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (IDEALS), an open access institutional repository of creative works produced by faculty members from the Urbana campus sponsored by the Office of the Provost and offered through the University Library and Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services.

Comment.  Kudos to all involved at UIUC.  This can start to change the balance of power between authors and publishers.  The short announcement above is all I have so far, but I'm looking for more information.  Will UIUC authors be encouraged or required to use the addendum?  Either way, are there any exceptions or opt-outs?  Will UIUC use the addendum at the roughly 70% of TA journals that already permit postprint archiving?  How will the UIUC lend its weight to the faculty side of difficult negotiations between individual faculty and journals?  What else is UIUC doing to populate IDEALS, its institutional repository?