A Highlight of New OA Policies : Open Access Now

"February brought many new Open Access developments, most notably the introduction of FASTR and the White House directive. In addition to federal developments, universities and societies have adopted new policies that support open access ... On February 6, Wellesley College adopted an open access policy modeled after the staple OA policy from Harvard. The Academic Council unanimously approved of the policy, which emphasized the policy’s purpose as a way to ensure that 'faculty retain by default their rights, including the right to keep copies of their publications for non-commercial use on a web server' and to allow for 'wide dissemination and visibility' of the scholarship. Read the full policy here... An open access resolution introduced at the College of Wooster faculty meeting on February 4 and was passed with unanimous faculty support yesterday, March 4. The College of Wooster Library, Information Resources, and Technology Committee (LIRTC) that introduced the policy believes that the resolution supports the institutional mission. LIRTC’s informational page highlighted the following benefits of the policy: Serve as a positive model for students, Enhance the visibility and impact of College of Wooster research, Advocate free access to scholarship and information as a public good, Support new, economically sustainable models of scholarly communication, and Aid in engaging a diverse and global community of learners View the full text of the resolution here. Both policies were approved by a unanimous faculty vote and are similar to Harvard’s policy. To date there have been a total of 39 university OA policies passed with a unanimous faculty vote. However, not all policies that passed with a unanimous faculty vote fit Harvard’s recommendation for a strong open access policy. View the full list of universities with policies similar to Harvard here ... Last month the Multiple Scelerosis Society adopted a rights-retention and green OA mandate that caps embargoes at six months. In the introduction of the policy, the MS Society stated the following: 'The MS Society is committed to open and unrestricted access to results of MS Society funded research. We believe the publication of results in open access journals allows the outputs from our funded research to be publically available– not just to other researchers, but also to potential users in business, charitable and public sectors, and to the general public.'  All peer-reviewed papers resulting from research funded by the MS Society will be made available through PubMed Central and Europe PubMed Central."