George Washington University
AC-11: Open Access to Research

As the George Washington University’s institutional repository, GW ScholarSpace provides free, public access, broad visibility, and long-term preservation for the research and scholarly works created by GW’s faculty, staff and students, including electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). Works produced or sponsored by GW faculty, researchers and staff may be shared through GW ScholarSpace, as well as ETDs and student works sponsored by GW faculty or programs. Appropriate types of work may include, but are not limited to journal pre-prints and post-prints, datasets, working papers, technical reports, conference papers, student works, annual reports, newsletters, and Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs).

Each faculty member grants to George Washington University nonexclusive permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles for the purpose of open dissemination. In legal terms, each faculty member grants to GW a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license to exercise any and all right under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same.

Faculty typically seek to publish their work in high-quality peer reviewed journals. When funds are available, they seek open access options, but these practices vary by field and scholar.

On February 13, 2015, the Faculty Senate adopted the following resolution: Each faculty member grants to George Washington University nonexclusive permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles for the purpose of open dissemination. In legal terms, each faculty member grants to GW a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license to exercise any and all right under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same.

GW encourages faculty and others to consider open access publishing to make their work more broadly available. Through the passage of the GW Faculty Open Access Resolution, the university has demonstrated its commitment to the free and open dissemination of knowledge.

https://library.gwu.edu/scholarly-communications/open-access-at-gw

GW schools and departments provide a variety of faculty research funds that can be used to support open access publications. These include the Research Enhancement Incentive Awards, which acknowledge faculty who win competitive grants.

GW hosts two open access journals with its resources: Global Business Languages and Policy Perspectives. The university also provides library funding to Open Access platforms and advocacy such as arXiv.og, SPARC, SCOAP3, Knowledge Unlatched, Open Journal Systems, Phil Papers, and Punctum books. Additionally, GW has a Scholarly Communications team which provides guidance on all aspects of scholarly publishing, including promoting open access.

We have entered the number of GW schools - 10 for the units, all of whom must comply with the policy. In addition, the GW medical, public health, and nursing schools participate in the Health Sciences Research Commons.

GW adopted the Electronic Theses and Dissertation (EDT) program in Fall 2007, to allow graduate students to create works of scholarship that are interactive, visually appealing, and readily accessible to a large audience of readers. Electronic theses/dissertations can include content that is not easily integrated into paper-based documents, such as high-resolution graphics, charts, pictures, photographs, and multi-media content. Since the start of the program, over 1,500 theses and dissertations have been successfully processed using the ETD Administrator system. The ETD website includes information on formatting requirements, steps for ETD Submission (including the required forms), and deadlines. Though GW does not yet have an institutional repository, theses and dissertations are in ProQuest. The URL for the GW EDT program: http://library.gwu.edu/etd and to search for dissertations and theses: http://library.gwu.edu/node/1287