ClaireReinert_A2

Open Access at Truman State University (a liberal arts teaching university in MO)

I’m interested in what OA policies might look like at smaller liberal arts teaching universities, since that’s the type of institution I hope to work at. Faculty at teaching universities are generally not required to publish very often—does that affect the motivation to implement an OA policy? Should teaching universities act instead in a support tole for OA at research universities? How might they do that? Unfortunately, it was too short of notice to talk to the one person at Truman that I think could answer these questions (the Director of Research and Instruction), so I’ve written this paper as a hypothetical description of how I would go about creating an OA policy at Truman, given the relatively small amount of research published by faculty. Truman State currently has no policy or repository for OA, so I would be starting from scratch. I’m sure that most faculty know what OA is, but because they don’t publish all that often, I imagine that I would have to lay some groundwork to begin with.

I would begin by meeting with department chairs to gauge how open faculty would be to an OA policy. I would send out an additional survey to see if faculty understand how OA works, and to see exactly how many faculty are already on board with supporting OA. Before drafting a policy, I would meet with all faculty in each department and give a discipline-specific pitch to get their support. For all departments, the main selling point will likely be the minimal amount of labor required, in addition to the benefit of freedom to decide how to disseminate one’s work. For the disciplines that are reticent about recognizing the need for OA, I would clearly articulate what will be expected of faculty: that they will simply need to deposit a copy of the finalized version of their publication in the IR, and that no negotiation with their publisher will be necessary. I would also make it clear that one can opt-out with no questions asked.

I would make a handout that articulates the risks and benefits of having an OA policy. The only risk that I can think of would fall on the libraries: that no one actually deposits their articles in the IR. As this risk doesn’t affect faculty, they shouldn’t be too concerned. The benefit is that it makes it as easy as possible for faculty to retain rights without having to negotiate with their publishers, that it gives faculty discretion to disseminate their work how they will, that it’ll increase the impact of their research, and that their work will be more accessible, and therefore will be cited more. An added benefit is that they can gain all this freedom, and their work will still be valued exactly the same for tenure as it always has been.

Once it is clear that most faculty are on board, I would have the Associate Dean of Libraries for Research and Instruction (a Scholarly Communications Officer would be ideal, but Truman doesn’t have one) draft the policy. I would recommend that they write a policy that grants Truman State “certain nonexclusive rights to future research articles published by faculty,” and that the policy should require deposit in either the IR or another OA journal or repository (Harvard, “Drafting a Policy”). When someone opts out, they have to file a waiver and leave a paper record, which will make it easier to tell how many people are actually depositing in the IR. I would also recommend that the policy require the deposit of all journal articles, but to use language that leaves the door open for other types of published material in the future. Additionally, I would suggest that deposit in the IR be required upon formal acceptance of the article for publication.

The primary budgetary issue would be to hire a new librarian who has it written into their job description to maintain and promote OA at Truman State. I don't think it would be necessary to hire a librarian whose job is only to maintain and promote OA, but I imagine that we could easily find a collection or R & I librarian who also has a strong foundation in scholarly communications as well.

The key points for evaluation are 1) Are faculty actually depositing works in the IR? The requirement of a waiver should make it easy to track how many people are not depositing their work. 2) Do faculty understand the value of the IR? I would gather this information either through surveys or by sitting down with entire departments for informal conversations. If faculty still don’t seem to understand why OA is important, I would send them a handout or an article explaining why they should care. 3) Are the OA materials being cited as much as faculty’s previously-published (non-OA) materials? This should be relatively easy to track. The evaluation report should be disseminated to all faculty so that they are reminded every 2 years of the importance of their contribution to OA.

References

"Drafting a Policy." (2021). Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. https://cyber.harvard.edu/hoap/Drafting_a_policy.