Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	51.46
Liaison	Bradley Flamm
Submission Date	March 6, 2020

STARS v2.2

West Chester University of Pennsylvania
AC-11: Open Access to Research

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	0.67 / 2.00	Bradley Flamm Director of Sustainability Office of the President

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Open access repository

Does the institution offer repository hosting that makes versions of journal articles, book chapters, and other peer-reviewed scholarly works by its employees freely available on the public internet?:

Yes

Website URL where the open access repository is available:

http://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/

A brief description of the open access repository:

Digital Commons @ West Chester University is an online showcase of research and creative works produced by West Chester University faculty and students. The content is easily discoverable on the Internet by all the major search engines, so all posted works have a high online profile. It includes faculty scholarship from all departments, student posters, masters theses and doctoral projects, an undergraduate research journal, an archive documenting the history and scholarship relating to the university’s 135-acre Gordon Natural Area, and a section highlighting projects related to sustainability.

Open access policy

Does the institution have a published policy that requires its employees to publish scholarly works open access or archive final post-peer reviewed versions of scholarly works in an open access repository?:

A copy of the institution's open access policy:

---

The institution's open access policy:

---

Does the policy cover the entire institution? :

---

APC fund

Does the institution provide an open access article processing charge (APC) fund for employees?:

A brief description of the open access APC fund:

---

Open access journal hosting

Does the institution provide open access journal hosting services through which peer-reviewed open access journals are hosted on local servers with dedicated staff who provide publishing support at no (or minimal) cost?:

A brief description of the open access journal hosting services:

---

Optional Fields

Estimated percentage of peer-reviewed scholarly works published annually by the institution’s employees that are deposited in a designated open access repository:

Website URL where information about the institution’s support for open access is available:

http://library.wcupa.edu/friendly.php?s=digitalcommons

Additional documentation to support the submission:

---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

While WCU's open access practices do not meet the AASHE STARS criteria, our Digital Commons platform provides some important functionality in this area: "Digital Commons @ West Chester University is intended to be an "Open Access" resource. Each department, or research unit or center, can decide what is appropriate for inclusion in their part of Digital Commons @ West Chester University. However, while content does not have to be authored by WCU faculty to be included, there does need to be a WCU affiliation. Digital Commons @ West Chester University is meant to be a permanent scholarly record and once a file is uploaded, a link to the file will always remain. However, authors may request that the administrator remove their work, or a version of their work. They may also request that an updated version be posted. The WCU Libraries will provide persistent access to Digital Commons @ West Chester University content, but it does not guarantee persistent functionality. See http://library.wcupa.edu/c.php?g=61587&p=395926."
Responses provided by Walt Cressler (Administrator for Digital Commons @ West Chester University) wcressler@wcupa.edu

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.