University of California’s Academic Senate Passes Open Access Policy for All 10 UC Campuses

UPDATE: Five Videos The Explain the New OA Policy

Christopher Kelty, Associate Professor of Information Studies at UCLA and chair of the University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication (UCOLASC) explains the details of the policy.

All five videos are embedded on this page. 
Topics covered include:

• What is the open access policy and who will it affect?
• Why did the University of California adopt this policy now; what do the faculty hope to achieve?
• What are the costs of this policy? Who wins and who loses?
• How is this policy in line with other recent developments in scholarly communication?
• What is the history of this policy initiative at UC?

—
From the U. of California:

The Academic Senate of the University of California has passed an Open Access Policy, ensuring that future research articles authored by faculty at all 10 campuses of UC will be made available to the public at no charge.
“The Academic Council’s adoption of this policy on July 24, 2013, came after a six-year process culminating in two years of formal review and revision,” said Robert Powell, chair of the Academic Council. “Council’s intent is to make these articles widely—and freely—available in order to advance research everywhere.”
Articles will be available to the public without charge via eScholarship (UC’s open access repository) in tandem with their publication in scholarly journals.
[Clip]
The policy covers more than 8,000 UC faculty at all 10 campuses ofthe University of California,and as many as 40,000 publications a year. It follows more than 175 other universities who have adopted similar so-called “green” open access policies. By granting a license to the University of California prior to any contractual arrangement with publishers, faculty members can now make their research widely and publicly available, re-use it for various purposes, or modify it for future research publications.

Direct to U. of California Open Access Policy (PDF)
Direct to U of California Open Access Policy FAQ
Direct to UC OA Policy Implementation Timetable
New deposit system coming in November 2013.

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Libraries, News, Open Access