Boston University
AC-11: Access to Research

Institution has a formally adopted open access policy that ensures that versions of all future scholarly articles by faculty and staff and all future theses and dissertations are deposited in a designated open access repository.

The open access repository may be managed by the institution or the institution may participate in a consortium with a consortial and/or outsourced open access repository.

This credit applies to all institutions where research is considered during faculty promotion and/or tenure decisions. Institutions that do not consider research in faculty promotion and/or tenure decisions as a matter of policy or standard practice may choose to pursue or omit this credit.

Institutions earn the maximum of 2 points available for this credit by having an open access policy that meets the criteria above covering the entire campus. Incremental points are available based on the percentage of the institution’s research-producing divisions (e.g. schools, colleges, departments) that are covered by an open access policy. For example, an institution with an open access policy covering 3 of its 6 colleges that produce research would earn 1 point (half of the points available for this credit).

See scoring table and example in the STARS Technical Manual.

Timeframe

Current policies and programs are eligible for this credit.

Sampling and Data Standards

Not applicable