University of California, Los Angeles
AC-11: Open Access to Research

The University of California (UC) is covered under two explicit Open Access policies:

1) "Open Access Policy for the Academic Senate of the University of California" was adopted on July 24, 2013 and applies to all members of the academic senate of the UC. This open access policy was established with the wish that the UC disseminate its research and scholarship (its "works") as widely as possible. For more information, please visit https://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/scholarly-publishing/uc-open-access-policies-background/systemwide-senate/.

2) "Presidential Policy on Open Access for University of California Authors who are not Members of the Academic Senate," covers all UC employee authors who are not members of Academic Senate. The Policy was adopted by the UC Office of the President on October 23, 2015. For more information, please visit https://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/scholarly-publishing/uc-open-access-policies-background/presidential/.

Both of these policies require that authors submit their work to UC's institutional repository, eScholarship, by the publication date. eScholarship is free to view and accessible to all. Faculty members of the Academic Senate may delay (embargo) or forfeit (waive) availability of their work, but must proactively do so on an article-by-article basis. Authors who are not members of the Academic Senate may embargo an article, or may waive an article's submission to eScholarship by displaying "compelling circumstances," again on an article-by-article basis.

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) charges authors whose articles are accepted for publication an article processing charge (APC) in order to cover the costs of publishing its journals. Under the new UC agreement, which covers articles submitted from April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2022, the UC libraries will pay at least the first $1,000 of the APC for articles with a UC corresponding author. If there’s any remaining balance due on the APC, PLOS’ payment system will ask UC authors if they have grant funding available to cover the balance. If an author does not have grant funds to cover that difference, the UC libraries will pay the entire APC on their behalf, ensuring that lack of research funds does not present a barrier for UC authors who wish to publish in PLOS’ open access journals.

For more information, please visit https://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/uc-publisher-relationships/plos-oa-agreement/

eScholarship Publishing is an open access publishing platform subsidized by the University of California, managed by the California Digital Library, and offered free of charge to UC-affiliated departments, research units, publishing programs and individual scholars. The service includes publishing and production tools, including a full editorial and peer review system, as well as professional support and consulting services.

All of the campuses included in the UC system are covered by the same Open Access Policies; there are two. One of the policies applies to members of the Academic Senate, and one applies to authors who are not members of the Academic Senate.