Alongside many other colleges, universities, and research organizations, the faculty of Alfred University have adopted an open access policy. Open Access will facilitate broader sharing and greater impact of the faculty's research and scholarship. Reducing barriers to access scholarly work will benefit students, educators, researchers, and the general public around the world.
At a Glance:
Alfred University's open access policy utilizes the "Green OA" or "self-archiving" route. It has no bearing on where faculty publish or whether they pay a fee to publish open access.
The policy applies to "scholarly articles" authored or co-authored by Alfred University faculty, published after the adoption of the policy. It is not retroactive and does not apply to creative works or monographs.
The policy recognizes the value of and supports authors to maintain legal control over their work while making their work freely and widely available to the public. Under this policy, each AU author retains their copyright and grants to Alfred University a non-exclusive license (limited to the purpose of making the work openly available) to the covered works.
Faculty will provide a copy of the author's final version (a.k.a. the author's accepted manuscript (AAM) or the post-print) to the Libraries (as facilitator) for inclusion in the institutional repository. They may also notify the Libraries that the work was published open access (if applicable). This should happen by the time the article is published, although there may be some catch-up in the early phase of implementing the policy.
Faculty who do not wish to participate may opt-out of the policy. The decision to opt-out must be communicated via email to the Libraries in a timely fashion when an article is published (a confirmation of opt-out will be provided to the faculty member).
Faculty may specify an embargo period to delay the open access release of the author's final version. The embargo period should be communicated when the final version is deposited to ensure it is applied correctly.
Open access to scholarly articles and other works means that these are accessible at no cost on a journal website or in a repository committed to long-term archiving, and available for all to read, download, print, copy, share, etc. (attribution always required, of course).
An open access policy provides a basis for Alfred University to preserve the work of its scholars in its online repository and to provide access to that work to anyone who seeks it. The goal is to share the research and scholarship of our faculty as widely as possible so that it can benefit everyone. Faculty will also more easily be able to promote and share their work with colleagues, students, and the public.
Many grant funders, including the U.S. government, now require that manuscripts/papers that result from their funding must be made available via an open access outlet. Having an institutional repository and open access policy will help Alfred University authors to comply with these mandates.
By default, Alfred University faculty are covered by the open access policy since its adoption by faculty vote February 26, 2021. Faculty who do not wish to participate may opt out (see below).
For scholarly articles authored or co-authored by AU faculty, published after March 1, 2021, submit the author's final version (a.k.a. the author's accepted manuscript or post-print) to the Libraries via email. Articles should be submitted by the date of publication. The need or desire for an embargo period, if applicable, should be communicated when the article is deposited.
Works not covered by the open access policy, including creative works, may also be made available open access in the institutional repository if desired by the author. Versions of articles published before the policy was implemented may be deposited if the author's agreement / publisher policy allows.
No, this policy has no effect on where you publish. There is no requirement to publish in an open access journal or pay an APC. This policy works via the green OA (self-archiving) route.
Your publisher may require that you obtain an embargo or a waiver if you are subject to an institutional open access policy like this one; email Samantha Dannick (dannick@alfred.edu) if that is the case.
This policy applies to scholarly articles (not monographs or creative works) published since March 1, 2021. Faculty are welcome to make monographs, creative works, and other scholarship that does not fall under the "scholarly articles" umbrella available in the institutional repository but are not required to.
If the author's agreement allows, deposits of scholarly articles published prior to March 1, 2021 are welcome and will be added to the institutional repository.
The author's final version, also known as the author's accepted manuscript (AAM), accepted manuscript, or post-print.
This is the last version of your article you sent to the publisher. It incorporates all corrections and changes made after peer and/or editorial review, but has not been formatted or typeset by the publisher. It will be a PDF or Word document and will not have any publisher / journal branding or watermarks.
Alfred University's institutional repository is AURA (Alfred University Research and Archives), accessible at aura.alfred.edu. The repository serves as a point of access and showcase for faculty and student scholarship, as well as a home for digitized material from the University Archives. Materials in AURA are available for scholars around the world to consult (unless access is restricted). Each item in the institutional repository is assigned a unique identifier which can be used to link directly to and share it.
Then you're basically done! Just send us a link to your article so that we can highlight your scholarship.
Opting out of the AU open access policy simply requires emailing Scholarly Communication Librarian, Samantha Dannick (dannick@alfred.edu) to obtain a confirmation of opt-out. The policy will apply unless the decision to opt-out is communicated; this is important for documentation and for how the policy intersects with publishers' author agreements.
Email Scholarly Communication Librarian, Samantha Dannick (dannick@alfred.edu). One-on-one, small-group, or department-level meetings / consultations are also available.