On November 14, Lund University became the first university in Sweden with an OA policy. The English translation was just approved for distribution. Here's the policy in its entirety:
The Internet has radically changed the practical and economical possibilities for the dissemination of research results. It is vital for Lund University to utilize these new opportunities to increase the visibility of research production and thereby maximize access for other researchers, industry, and the general public. This will also increase the visibility and impact of Lund University researchers. Open access to publications leads to more usage and greater impact for the researchers. Many universities are working towards this goal with the support of The Association of Swedish Higher Education (SUHF). For Lund University, this implies the establishment of an infrastructure to advance and facilitate open access to publications by Lund University researchers. In the U21 group, a cooperative effort in this direction has already begun. This development means that an increasing amount of accepted doctoral theses will be freely available on the Internet, unless prevented by copyright agreements. Finally, the goal is to increase the number of quality controlled articles in scientific journals, and in conference proceedings, deposited (parallel-published) in the University repository, together with other publications in the form of report series and working papers,
Even though the individual researcher owns the intellectual property rights to his/her material it is important that the Board of Lund University supports this development.
Resolution: In order to maximize the number of open access publications the Board of Lund University strongly recommends that:
Researchers at Lund University, if possible, publish in journals with open access
If no equivalent open access journal is available, researchers choose a journal allowing parallel publishing/deposition of the article
Transfer of copyright be avoided. As a minimum the author's right to parallel publishing must be retained
Lund University work for the transition of scholarly journals to a publishing model, where articles either are made freely available to the reader directly or through parallel publishing
(PS: Kudos to all at Lund who had a hand in drafting and adopting this policy.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/14/2005 10:04:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
