The faculty of The College of Wooster is committed to disseminating the results of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, the faculty adopts the following policy:

Each member of the faculty and staff grants to The College of Wooster permission to make his or her scholarly journal articles openly accessible in the College’s institutional repository. In legal terms, the permission granted by each faculty or staff member is an irrevocable, nonexclusive, paid-up, worldwide license to exercise all rights under copyright for purposes of making his or her scholarly articles openly accessible in an institutional repository, and to authorize other parties (such as OhioLINK) to do the same, provided that the articles are not sold for income or profit. The license will be waived for a given article at any time upon request of the author.

The policy will apply to all scholarly journal articles published while the person is a member of the faculty or staff except for: any articles published before the adoption of this policy; any articles for which the faculty or staff member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy; or any articles for which the author requests a waiver. Scholarly articles are understood to be articles published in peer-reviewed journals.

To assist the College in cataloguing and distributing the published scholarship of its faculty, each faculty and staff member will, upon publication of the article, provide an electronic copy of the author’s final peer-reviewed version of the article, along with the appropriate bibliographical data, to the Scholarly Communications Officer. This copy will be provided free of charge and in an appropriate format (such as PDF), as specified by the Library and Information Resources Technology Committee (LIRTC) in consultation with the Office of the Provost. The Scholarly Communications Officer will automatically waive application of the policy for a particular article upon written request by the author. Waivers will only be granted after the bibliographical data of the publication have been submitted.

While this policy only covers peer-reviewed journal articles, members of the faculty and staff are strongly encouraged also to provide bibliographical data and, where possible, the full text, of any other publication (such as chapters and essays in edited volumes, reference articles, non-peer-reviewed articles, and monographs), for inclusion in the Institutional Repository. The repository will provide links to the final published versions of all publications.

The Library and Information Resources Technology Committee, in consultation with the Office of the Provost, will be responsible for interpreting this policy, establishing guidelines for its implementation, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the faculty from time to time. The policy will be reviewed by the Library and Information Resources Technology Committee after three years and a report presented to the faculty.

The day-to-day administration of this policy will be the responsibility of the Scholarly Communications Officer, who will be a member of the current library staff designated by the Director of Libraries. The Officer will process the publication data and texts submitted; process any waiver requests; and assist individual faculty in clarifying publishers’ policies with regard to repositories, as well as any negotiation with publishers concerning copyright.

Passed unanimously by the Faculty, March 4, 2013

The text of this resolution is adapted with permission from similar resolutions at Harvard University and Oberlin College