- Compiled, reviewed, and approved by the Faculty Senate Library Committee – Task Force on Scholarly Communication, 6 January 2016.
- Presented to Faculty Senate Steering Committee, 12 January 2016.
- Presented to and unanimously adopted by Faculty Senate, 17 February 2016.
Purpose
Provide the broadest possible access to the journal literature authored by FSU faculty.
Policy Statement
The Faculty of Florida State University, consistent with the University’s mission to “preserve, expand and disseminate knowledge,”¹ is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. As such, the Faculty adopts the following policy: Each Faculty member grants to Florida State University permission to make available his or her scholarly articles² and to exercise the copyright in those articles, except when a Faculty member expressly waives this grant of rights. More specifically, each Faculty member grants to Florida State University a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit.³ The policy applies to all scholarly articles authored or coauthored 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. The Provost or Provost’s designee⁴ will waive application of the license for a particular article or delay access for a specified period of time upon express direction by a Faculty member.
Each faculty member who does not request a waiver of the licensing requirement as described above will provide an electronic copy of his or her final version of each article (i.e., the “final author’s version post-peer review” or the “final published version” where possible) to the appropriate representative of the Provost’s Office in an appropriate format (such as PDF) specified by the Provost’s Office.
The Provost’s designee may make the article available to the public in DigiNole, Florida State University’s institutional research 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 Senate. After three years, the Faculty Senate Library Committee will review the policy and present a report on behalf of the Faculty Senate.
Notes
¹ This references the standing Open Access Resolution passed in October 2011, which pointed directly to the Mission. (See https://www.lib.fsu.edu/drs/open-access-resolution).
² “Scholarly articles” are articles that describe the fruits of scholars’ research and are given to the world for the sake of inquiry and knowledge without expectation of payment. Such articles are typically presented in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.
³ The goal of which is the open access deposit of the article in DigiNole and returning many rights to authors after later copyright transfer to a publisher. This is the only way the license will ever be acted on by the University.
⁴ The Provost’s designee is typically the Libraries.
