Smith College
AC-11: Open Access to Research

The open access policy was adopted by the faculty on April 22, 2015. It states that subject to the faculty member's right to opt out of the policy, upon completion of the final manuscript of a scholarly article, the faculty member grants Smith College permission to make the article available to scholars and the public under the Creative Commons CC BY License, which is the most permissive of the Creative Commons licenses. Faculty members are to provide digital copy to library staff, who include the article in the repository, called Smith Scholarworks. Smith ScholarWorks is an institutional repository that provides permanent online access to advance scholarship and encourage the growth of scholarly communities through open access, quick discovery, and wide dissemination of scholarly and creative content by Smith College faculty, students, and staff.

Adopted by the faculty on April 22, 2015 Preamble: The Faculty of Smith College is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. This Open Access Policy establishes the terms under which Faculty members permit distribution of their scholarly articles via open access channels. This policy relies on Creative Commons licenses, which are simple methods that permit an author to grant specific copyright permissions without transferring copyright ownership. Policy: Grant of Rights. Subject to the Faculty Member’s right to opt out of this policy, upon completion of the final manuscript of a scholarly article, the Faculty member grants Smith College permission to make the article available to scholars and the public under the Creative Commons CC BY License, which is the most permissive of the Creative Commons licenses. Alternative Creative Commons License: As an alternative to the CC BY License, upon timely written direction by the Faculty member, Smith College will make the article at issue available under the CC BY-NC-ND License, which is the most restrictive of the Creative Commons licenses. Submission of Copy: Faculty members are encouraged to provide the Library with an electronic copy of the article in final manuscript form, for inclusion in the digital repository. Articles should be provided in the format(s) (such as PDF) specified by the Office of the Provost/Dean of the Faculty. Faculty members recognize that articles may need to be re-formatted for purposes of posting and adding metadata. Scope of Policy: This policy applies to all finalized 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. Opt Out: The Provost/Dean of the Faculty or its designate will not apply this policy for a particular article, or delay open access to the article for a specified period of time, upon written direction by the relevant Faculty member. Any faculty member wishing to exempt all future articles from this policy may exercise a one-time blanket opt-out, which the faculty member may later revoke if desired. Interpretation: The Office of the Provost/Dean of the Faculty will be responsible for interpreting this policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and, in consultation with the Committee on the Library, recommending changes to the Faculty from time to time. The Faculty calls upon the Committee on the Library and the Provost to develop and monitor a plan for a service or mechanism that would render compliance with this policy as convenient for the Faculty as possible.

Submission, organization, and maintenance activities of the repository are under the purview of the College Libraries.