ACU Passed an Open Access Policy in May of 2017. This was a long process which began in 2014, when the ACU Library purchased the institutional repository software, Digital Commons. The Library faculty committed to making their works open access through Digital Commons in the summer of 2016. In October of 2016, an open access survey was sent out to all faculty, gauging their interest and support of open access. The University Library Committee then drafted a proposed open access policy in response to the survey in November of 2016, which was presented to the faculty senate and deans and department chairs. The policy was finally opened up for a vote by ACU faculty in May of 2017.
Abilene Christian University: Faculty Open Access Policy
The faculty of ACU is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, the faculty adopts the following policy:
Each faculty member grants ACU permission to make available his or her scholarly articles. More specifically, each faculty member grants to ACU a nonexclusive license to exercise rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, provided that the articles are attributed to the author, not altered, and not sold for a profit.
This policy applies to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored while the person is a member of the ACU 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. On an article by article basis, the faculty member may obtain a waiver for any reason, no questions asked, including delayed access to an article for a specified period of time.
Each faculty member will provide an electronic copy in an appropriate format of the author’s final version of each article no later than the conclusion of the academic year in which the article is published. The University will make the article available to the public in an open-access repository. The Office of the Provost 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 policy will be reviewed by the University Library Committee after three years and a report presented to the faculty.
So... what is this policy actually asking me to do?
To summarize, for any scholarly articles that ACU faculty publish, we are asking that those articles be allowed to be deposited in ACU's digital repository: DigitalCommons @ ACU. We are asking faculty to provide an electronic copy that complies with publisher agreements (either a pre-print, post-print, or finalized version) and either self-deposit the article, or allow the library to deposit it directly from submissions to Activity Insight. (See Box "How to Upload Submissions" for instructions on how this works.)
We are NOT asking you to:
The library is here to support you in this initiative. Please email oa@acu.edu to let us know how we can help!
Opt-Out Waivers Granted, No Questions Asked
The overall objective of the Open Access Policy is to make your research more visible. There may be times when it is not in your best interest to comply with this policy, such as inclusion of copyrighted materials in the work or agreements with publishers that prevent open dissemination. A faculty member may not want their work easily accessible for various reasons. Faculty do not need to offer a reason for requesting a waiver, and an opt out waiver has been included as part of the policy.
When submitting to Activity Insight, click the "Do Not Add to Digital Commons" box as proof and authorization of a no questions asked waiver.
OA is best practice in higher education. Over 700 universities have adopted OA policies. (List of University/ Research Institutions with OA policies can be found here: Link to RoarMap: Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies.) This ranges from major universities like Harvard and MIT to mid-sized private Christian universities like Trinity University. The policies most often focus on peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles and their open access through deposit in online Institutional Repositories (IRs).