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Open Access Mandates

Charting the Course for Scholarly Dissemination: An authoritative exploration of policies driving open access in academic research.

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What is an Open-Access Mandate?

Policy Framework

An open-access mandate is a policy enacted by research institutions, funding bodies, or governments. It requires or recommends researchers to make their peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers accessible via open access. This is typically achieved through two primary methods: "Green OA" (self-archiving in repositories) or "Gold OA" (publishing in open-access journals), or a combination of both.

Green vs. Gold OA

Green OA involves depositing the final peer-reviewed manuscript into a freely accessible institutional or disciplinary repository. Gold OA refers to publishing the article directly in an open-access journal. Mandates often specify requirements for deposit timing, repository choice, and sometimes publisher agreements.

Legal and Ethical Underpinnings

These policies aim to broaden the reach and impact of research, ensuring that publicly funded work is accessible to the public. They often include provisions for copyright retention by the author, allowing institutions to exercise rights for dissemination while authors retain ownership.

Key Characteristics

Mandating Bodies

Mandates can originate from various entities:

  • Employing Institutions: Universities and research centers requiring faculty and staff to deposit their publications.
  • Research Funders: Government agencies and private foundations making open access a condition of grant funding.

Deposit and Access Timing

Policies vary regarding when deposits must occur and when access becomes open:

  • Immediate Deposit: Authors must deposit their work upon acceptance or publication.
  • Delayed Access: Access may be restricted for a publisher-defined embargo period (e.g., 6-12 months).

Strength and Flexibility

Mandates differ in strength, from mere recommendations to strict obligations. Some include opt-out clauses for authors, allowing exceptions based on specific circumstances or publisher agreements. Rights-retention clauses are a key feature, empowering institutions to ensure open access.

Global Instances

Canadian Agencies

Canada's federal funding agencies, including CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC, have implemented mandates requiring publications arising from their funding to be made available within 12 months of publication, either through open access journals or repositories.

United States Initiatives

The U.S. government, notably through the NIH Public Access Policy (effective 2008) and a 2013 White House directive, mandates federal agencies with significant R&D expenditures to ensure public accessibility of federally funded research publications, often within 12 months.

European Efforts

The European Commission has consistently promoted open access, recommending mandates for EC-funded research. Initiatives like Horizon 2020 and the OpenAIRE project support open access to publications and data, reflecting a strong commitment to knowledge circulation.

Policy Nuances

Types of Mandates

Mandates can be categorized by their approach:

  • Encouragement Policies: Recommendations rather than strict requirements.
  • Loophole Mandates: Allow deposit only if publishers permit.
  • Limited-Embargo Mandates: Permit a grace period before open access.
  • Rights-Retention Mandates: Authors grant institutions a license to ensure open access, often surviving publisher agreements.

Locus and Timing

Policies specify where deposits should occur (institutional vs. external repositories) and when they must be made open (immediately or after an embargo). Immediate deposit, even if access is delayed, is a common strategy to ensure compliance.

Measuring Impact

Increased Visibility

Studies indicate that open-access mandates significantly increase the rate of "Green OA" self-archiving. Research suggests that mandates can triple self-archiving rates compared to institutions without such policies, leading to broader dissemination and potentially higher citation impact.

Researcher Compliance

Surveys consistently show that researchers are willing to comply with mandates. When institutions or funders require self-archiving, compliance rates rise substantially, demonstrating the effectiveness of clear policy directives.

Tracking Mandates

Registries and Databases

Several resources track the growing landscape of open-access mandates:

  • ROARMAP (Registry of Open Access Mandatory Archiving Policies): A comprehensive database of institutional, funder, and governmental mandates.
  • SHERPA/JULIET: Focuses specifically on funder mandates.
  • OpenDOAR: A directory of open-access repositories.

Growth Trends

As of recent data, hundreds of universities and research funders worldwide have adopted open-access mandates. This trend reflects a global movement towards making research outputs more accessible and impactful.

University Policies

US Institutions

Prominent U.S. universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Princeton have implemented faculty-driven open-access policies. These typically involve granting the university a non-exclusive license to disseminate scholarly work via institutional repositories, often with opt-out provisions.

UK and Europe

Institutions such as University College London (UCL) in the UK, and universities in Portugal and Switzerland (e.g., University of Minho, ETH Zurich), have also adopted mandates, aligning with broader European initiatives for open science and research accessibility.

Related Concepts

Core Ideas

Understanding open-access mandates involves familiarity with related concepts such as:

  • Self-archiving: The practice of depositing research outputs in repositories.
  • Article Processing Charges (APCs): Fees often associated with Gold OA publishing.
  • Predatory Publishing: Unscrupulous journals that exploit the OA model.
  • Creative Commons Licenses: Tools for managing copyright and permissions for open content.

Broader Movements

Open-access mandates are part of larger movements promoting openness in scholarly communication and research, including:

  • Open Science: Encompassing open access, open data, and open methodology.
  • Access to Knowledge (A2K): A broader movement advocating for equitable access to information and culture.

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References

References

  1.  Registry of Open Access Mandatory Archiving Policies
  2.  Rentier, B., & Thirion, P. (2011). The Liรƒยจge ORBi model: Mandatory policy without rights retention but linked to assessment processes.
  3.  CIHR Policy on Access to Research Outputs รขย€ย“ CIHR. Cihr-irsc.gc.ca. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  4.  announcement of the new Tri-Agency Open Access Policy
A full list of references for this article are available at the Open-access mandate Wikipedia page

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Disclaimer

Important Notice

This content has been generated by an AI model and is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It is based on data extracted from Wikipedia and may not reflect the most current information or nuances of the topic.

This is not policy advice. The information provided herein should not be considered a substitute for consulting official policy documents or seeking expert advice from relevant institutions or legal professionals. Always refer to authoritative sources for policy interpretation and implementation.

The creators of this page are not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for any actions taken based on the information provided.