Univ of California Proposes an OA Policy for Comment
Five white papers and a draft policy were released for comment by the University of California Academic Council on December 14. All six documents are relevant to Open Access, in different degrees:
1. Evaluation of Publications in Academic Personnel Processes
2. The Case of Journal Publishing
3. The Case of Scholarly Book Publishing
4. Scholarly Societies and Scholarly Communication
5. The Case of Scholars’ Management of Their Copyright
6. [The draft policy] Proposal for UC Faculty – Scholarly Work Copyright Rights Policy
An excerpt from the Overview of the Reports:
During University of California negotiations with publishers of scholarly works in 2004, it became clear to UC faculty that the current models of scholarly communication had become unsustainable. UC Librarians and budget officers had seen this crisis approaching for some years. But long as library budgets could be managed and access to the most critical work could be maintained, faculty members were largely insulated from the growing crisis. When it became clear, in the face of falling university budgets and rising costs of publications, that the UC community’s access to new knowledge would progressively be limited, and that the access by others to UC-produced scholarship would similarly be limited, the Academic Council (effectively the Executive Committee of the UC Academic Senate) established a Special Committee on Scholarly Communication (SCSC) to consider what role the faculty should take in addressing these important issues. The accompanying five short papers and appendices are the result of SCSC’s work. The papers define and explain the faculty’s view of changes that could improve dissemination of scholarly work to enhance the discovery and communication of new knowledge, and best serve the public interest.
To view the reports, go to:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/committees/scsc/reports.html
