Author rights and the Harvard open access policies: a response to Patrick Alexander | UKSG Insights

Suber, Peter. 2021. “Author Rights and the Harvard Open Access Policies: A Response to Patrick Alexander”. Insights 34 (1): 8. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.543

Abstract: In his opinion piece criticizing the open access (OA) policies at Harvard University, Patrick Alexander makes several factual errors about the policies themselves and Harvard’s experience under them. In response, I discuss several relevant facts about Harvard OA policies, among them that the policies were adopted by faculty votes, not imposed by administrators; that under the policies, faculty only grant Harvard nonexclusive rights to new faculty articles, not exclusive rights or full copyright; that the policy-created Harvard OA license is merely a default that authors can easily waive for any given article; that the policies do not hinder Harvard faculty in publishing and do not limit their freedom to publish in the venues of their choice; and that the policies give Harvard faculty more rights, not fewer rights, over their own work than they typically get from their publishing contracts.