On October 1, 2009 librarians and archivists at York University Libraries voted unanimously to adopt the following policy: ...
Policy Statement:
Academic librarians and archivists at York University commit to making the best possible effort to publish in venues providing unrestricted public access to their works. They will endeavour to secure the right to self-archive their published materials, and will deposit these works in YorkSpace [the university's IR].
The York University academic librarian and archivist complement grant York University Libraries the non-exclusive right to make their scholarly publications accessible through self-archiving in the YorkSpace institutional repository subject to copyright restrictions.
Guidelines:
This policy applies to all scholarly and professional work produced as a member of York University academic staff produced as of the date of the adoption of this policy. Retrospective deposit is encouraged. Co-authored works should be included with the permission of the other author(s). Examples of works include:
Scholarly and professional articles
Substantive presentations, including slides and text
Books/book chapters
Reports
Substantive pedagogical materials such as online tutorials
Works should be deposited in YorkSpace as soon as is possible, recognizing that some publishers may impose an embargo period.
This policy is effective as of 01/10/2009 and will be assessed a year after implementation. ...
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.
