The Faculty Senate unanimously voted last Wednesday to endorse giving University faculty members more rights to their published works and allowing those articles to be more accessible to the public.

The Senate voted to do so through its Resolution on Scholarly Publication and Author’s Rights, which states that faculty members may provide electronic versions of their work for an open access electronic repository. This facility will be run by the University Library, the Office of the Provost and the Faculty Senate’s Task Force on Scholarly Publications and Authors’ Rights.
History Prof. Allan Megill, a Faculty Senate member, said the repository will need to be planned and organized carefully. He added, though, that it has the potential to be a valuable resource.

“I look forward to the appearance of the repository; I think it will be a benefit for U.Va faculty,” he said.

The Open Access policy was a revision of a resolution on scholarly publications that was brought to the Faculty Senate last November, Task Force Chair Brian Pusser said. Originally, the resolution said participation would be mandatory by default but that faculty members could sign a waiver to opt out of it. The policy then was revised so that faculty members simply could decide if they wanted to contribute to the repository, Pusser said.

This change was made in part because some faculty members had reservations about how a mandatory initiative would affect scholarly journals, he said. Moreover, some faculty members might not have been comfortable with the requirement to negotiate with publishers for open access rights, he said.

Overall, the repository could be beneficial not only for open access and collaboration but also for professors.

“For many faculty members, when they sign contracts with publishers, they automatically give up their rights to their works,” University Librarian Karin Wittenborg said. “This repository is a resource for them to use.”

Currently, the repository is being tested and may be available for use next fall, she added.