Rice University
AC-11: Access to Research

The Faculty of Rice University is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, and recognizing the importance of allowing faculty members to choose appropriate venues for publishing their scholarly work, the Faculty adopted an open access policy on April 18th of 2012. The open access polity requires that all faculty members deposit copies of their peer-reviewed journal articles into Rice’s institutional repository, the Rice University Digital Scholarship Archive. The policy supports the broad dissemination of Rice’s research and scholarship to bring increased recognition to authors and to the institution. The publications will be freely available to anyone, anywhere.

Rice Faculty Senate Policy
On April 18, 2012, the Rice Faculty Senate passed an open access policy to make all articles published by Rice faculty available as open access publications. The following is the statement that was passed:
Approved by the Faculty Senate, April 18, 2012
Motion to approve an Open Access Policy, as follows:
The Faculty of Rice University is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, and recognizing the importance of letting faculty members choose appropriate venues of publications for their scholarly work, the Faculty adopts the following policy: The current Rice copyright policy governing faculty publications will be followed, with the additional provision that Rice University will make published articles written by faculty members available for open dissemination. The policy will apply to all scholarly articles written while the person is a faculty member, except for publications completed before the adoption of this policy. The Provost or Provost’s designate will waive application of the policy for a particular scholarly publication upon written notification by the author, who informs Rice of the reason. Faculty members are further encouraged to make all of their publications, not just articles, available for open dissemination.
To assist Rice in distributing the scholarly articles, as of the date of publication, each faculty member will make available an electronic copy of his or her final version of the publication at no charge to a designated representative of the Provost’s Office in one of the appropriate formats specified by the Provost’s Office. The Provost’s Office will make the articles available to the public in an open-access repository, the Rice Digital Scholarship Archive. Upon request, an article will not be made available to the public for an agreed-upon embargo period.
The Office of the Provost, in consultation with the Vice Provost and University Librarian, will be responsible for interpreting this policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the Faculty. The Library Committee will provide ongoing faculty oversight, advising the Office of the Provost and reporting annually to the Senate.
The policy is to take effect immediately; it will be reviewed after three years, with a report presented to the Faculty. The Faculty calls upon the Vice Provost and University Librarian to develop and monitor a plan for a service or mechanism that would render compliance with the policy as convenient for the Faculty as possible.

With the open access policy newly in place, Fondren Library is working with faculty to help them comply with the requirements. Learning from other institutions whose faculties have adopted an open access policy, Fondren realizes that support is necessary in order to get publications into the repository. Significant groundwork is being laid to heighten awareness of the policy and to explain open access. First and foremost, the library is placing an emphasis on marketing, because both the policy and the repository itself are new to the majority of faculty. Assisting faculty with article deposits, providing support for navigating copyright issues, working with publishers to make them aware of the new policy and developing a mechanism for requesting a waiver when compliance becomes impossible are all services that the library provides to faculty, staff and students involved in research.