Duke University
AC-11: Access to Research

Duke's Open Access Policy for faculty scholarship applies to all divisions at Duke. In March 2010, the Duke University Academic Council adopted an open access policy that applies to all Duke faculty members and, unless individual authors choose to opt-out, provides Duke a license to make scholarly articles authored by Duke faculty freely available via a Duke University Libraries repository known as DukeSpace. The text of the policy is found in Appendix P of the Faculty Handbook. If a publisher requests a formal letter waiving the faculty open access policy (i.e., asking to opt out), that can be accommodated. In 2010, Duke joined the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE) and established a fund to help Duke researchers cover author fees and to remove the financial barriers to publishing in OA journals.

Policy on Open Access to Research Adopted by Academic Council, 18 March 2010 http://provost.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/FHB_App_P.pdf The Faculty of Duke University is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In addition to the public benefit of such dissemination, this policy is intended to serve faculty interests by promoting greater reach and impact for articles, simplifying authors’ retention of distribution rights, and aiding preservation. In keeping with these commitments, the Faculty adopts the following policy. Each Faculty member grants to Duke University permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to reproduce and distribute those articles for the purpose of open dissemination. In legal terms, each Faculty member grants to Duke University a nonexclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do so, provided that the articles are not sold. The Duke faculty author remains the copyright owner unless that author chooses to transfer the copyright to a publisher. The policy will apply to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored while the person is a member of the Faculty except for any articles completed before the adoption of this policy and any articles for which the Faculty member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy. The Provost or Provost's designate will waive application of the license for a particular article or delay access for a specified period of time upon written request by a Faculty member. To assist the University in distributing the scholarly articles, each faculty member will make available, as of the date of publication or upon request, an electronic copy of the final author’s version of the article at no charge to a designated representative of the Provost’s Office in an appropriate format (such as PDF) specified by the Provost's Office. The Provost's Office will make the article available to the public in Duke’s open-access repository. In cases where the Duke license has been waived or an embargo period has been mutually agreed, the article may be archived in a Duke repository without open access for the period of the embargo, or permanently in cases of waiver. The Office of the Provost, in consultation with the Executive Committee of the Academic Council, will be responsible for interpreting this policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the Faculty from time to time. The Faculty calls upon the Library Council and Duke University Libraries to develop and monitor a plan for a service or mechanism that would render compliance with the policy as convenient for the faculty as possible. The policy and service model will be reviewed after three years and a report presented to the Faculty. For more information on the implementation of this policy, see http://library.duke.edu/openaccess/ or contact Kevin Smith , Scholarly Communications Officer at Duke University Libraries.

At Duke, one of the signature themes of our mission is putting knowledge in the service of society. This means making the fruits of Duke research available as broadly as possible — not just to researchers at places like Duke that have subscription access to scholarly literature via their libraries but to anyone who might benefit from the scholarship being done here. Duke University and Duke University Libraries support open access through a number of initiatives and encourages Duke scholars to work toward making their research openly accessible. Duke University Libraries hosts a repository called DukeSpace. The DukeSpace repository hosts articles made available under the open access policy, as well as other scholarly resources from Duke. The Duke University Graduate School requires all students to submit their theses and dissertations electronically. All submissions are accessible in the DukeSpace repository under a Creative Commons license. The Duke Medical Center Library & Archives also supports open access to health and medical information. Open Access Journal Publishing: Duke University Libraries can help researchers create a peer-reviewed online journal or transition an existing one to an open access online version by providing a platform and technical support. We currently support several journals using the Open Journal Systems platform. Open Access at Duke Law: In 1998, the Duke University School of Law became the first in the country to make all the articles published in its law journals — including back issues — freely accessible online. The Duke Law Scholarship Repository continues to provide free, full-text access to more than 3,000 scholarly articles written by Duke Law faculty or published in Duke Law journals.

The 10 major divisions referenced above are Duke's 10 schools: Divinity School Fuqua School of Business Graduate School Law School Nicholas School of the Environment Pratt School of Engineering Sanford School of Public Policy School of Medicine School of Nursing Trinity School of Arts & Sciences