Below is a translation of the formal policy of Minho University established by a Rectoral Document, signed in the 6th of December, after discussion with the Presidents and Directors of Research Centers, Departaments and Schools of the University, that will be implemented from January 1st 2005.
Following the signature of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, the definition of this formal policy intend to express the adhesion and commitment of Minho University to Open Access, and was also one of the initiatives to celebrate the first anniversary of the University institutional repository - RepositóriUM:
https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt
Earlier in 2004, Minho University has created two sites related to OA and IR for the Portuguese speaking community:
Acesso Livre - Site about OA (in Portuguese) -
http://www.sdum.uminho.pt/site/acessolivre
LusoDSpace - Site about DSpace software and IR (in Portuguese and English) -
http://lusodspace.sdum.uminho.pt
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University of Minho Intellectual Output Policy
Whereas:
1 - It's in the best interest of University of Minho, and its objective, to maximise the visibility, usage and impact of the scientific output of its schools/departments and teachers/researchers.
2 - This objective can be achieved by making available in open access (i.e., full text, online, free, unrestricted and worldwide) the publications and documents resulting of R&D activities developed in the university, through RepositóriUM - University of Minho Institutional Repository, with the exceptions mentioned below.
3 - The significant majority of documents and publications resulting from scientific activity in University of Minho can be self-archived and available in open access in RepositóriUM, without any restriction associated with the violation of copyright, because:
a) Authors (U.M. teachers/researchers) are the single rights holders of their thesis and dissertations, of most of conference papers (unless they have explicitly transfer those rights), of technical reports, working papers, etc.
b) The significant majority of the journals (approximately 92%) allow some kind of self-archive of the preprints (version sent for publication before peer-review and publication approval) and/or postprints (final version, after peer-review and publication approval) of the articles they publish.
c) Even in dubious situations or when authors may have signed a restrictive copyright transfer form, the inquiry with the holders of the rights may result in the authorisation (or at least in the non prohibition) for self-archiving in University of Minho Institutional Repository.
4 - Documents whose availability in open access may constitute an infraction to the licence granted to third parties (editors, etc.) by the author(s) or by University of Minho, that contain confidential matters or are intended for commercialization (books, etc.), will not be available in open access in RepositóriUM, but only referenced with the traditional metadata, or made available in restricted access to the University of Minho network.
5 - By using RepositoriUM to implement an open access policy to its scientific output, University of Minho stands in the vanguard of an international growing movement, which has been gaining supporters in and outside universities and research centers and is coherent with its adhesion and signing, in November 2004, of the Berlin Declaration on Open-Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.
6 - By using RepositóriUM to collect (or exceptionally only to reference) the publications of its members, University of Minho is facilitating the management, integration and access to the information about scientific output of its schools/departments and staff, for informative, evaluative or administrative purposes, and adding a component of the development of the Information System of the University.
1 - The University of Minho Intellectual Output Policy is thus established:
a) Teachers and researchers at University of Minho who are authors or co-authors must archive their publications and documents in RepositóriUM - University of Minho Institutional Repository, to be made available in open access with the exceptions previously mentioned;
b) The organisational units (research centers, departments/schools) must sign and adopt self-archive policies for the scientific output of their members, based in the sample attached to the present document.
c) Authors of thesis and dissertations approved by University of Minho must authorise the archive of their thesis or dissertation in RepositoriUM.
2 - In 2005, the Rectory (government of University) will provide a financial supplement to schools and research centers, proportional to their adjustment to the policy of open access in RepositóriUM.
Eloy Rodrigues
Universidade do Minho - Serviços de Documentação
Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga
Tel: +351 253 60 41 50; Fax - 253 60 41 59
Campus de Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães
Tel: +351 253 51 01 19; Fax - 253 51 01 17
-----Original Message-----
From: Stevan Harnad [mailto:harnad_at_ECS.SOTON.AC.UK]
Sent: domingo, 19 de Dezembro de 2004 12:58
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: Re: University of Southampton to provide free access toacademicresearch online
From Open Access News:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2004_12_12_fosblogarchive.html#a110329879885920653
JISC support for Southampton initiative
JISC
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/ has released a supportive statement on the
University of Southampton commitment to open access.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/news/667
University decision to offer free online access to all research
17 Dec 2004
Public online access to research findings emanating from universities,
enabled through funding the development of institutional repositories,
is a JISC priority (The forthcoming edition of JISC Inform, available
in January 2005, includes an overview of repositories).
Southampton University has, through its JISC-funded TARDis project,
http://tardis.eprints.org/
examined how institutional repositories can be used by researchers
to deposit their outputs, to provide a rich source of material to build
the UK's research infrastructure. Southampton is now taking its
TARDis 'experiment' institution wide, and has the full backing of its
most senior staff. Yesterday (16th December 2005) we received the
following from Pauline Simpson, a member of staff who has
worked on the TARDis project:
The University of Southampton is to make all its academic and
scientific research output freely available.
A decision by the University to provide core funding for its
Institutional Repository establishes it as a central part of its
research infrastructure, marking a new era for Open Access to academic
research in the UK.
Until now, the databases used by universities to collect and disseminate
their research output have been funded on an experimental basis by JISC
(the Joint Information Systems Committee).
The University of Southampton is the first in the UK to announce
that it is transitioning its repository from the status of an experiment
to an integral part of the research infrastructure of the institution.
'This decision by the University marks a real milestone in the
Open Access initiative,' says Dr Leslie Carr. 'At Southampton we
have a significant headstart since we created the EPrints software
http://www.eprints.org/ that is used by many UK universities, but
we expect and indeed hope that others will soon give similar status
to their own archives.'
Dr Carr is Technical Director of the open source EPrints.org software,
which is now used by around 150 repositories worldwide.
http://archives.eprints.org/eprints.php?action=browse
Southampton established its repository in 2002 as part of the JISC
TARDis project (Targeting Academic Research for Deposit and Disclosure),
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/
to explore issues surrounding the Open Access paradigm. The repository
provides a publications database with full text, multimedia and research
data.
'We see our Institutional Repository as a key tool for the stewardship
of the University's digital research assets,' said Professor Paul
Curran, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University. 'It will provide
greater access to our research, as well as offering a valuable
mechanism for reporting and recording it.
'The University has been committed to Open Access for many years. The
fact that we are now supporting it with core funding is another
tangible step towards its full achievement.'
The Southampton repository will now become a service of the University
Library in partnership with the University's Information Systems
Services and its School of Electronics and Computer Science (who
host the JISC-funded software development team).
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/
Acknowledging the success of the partnership between the Library,
Information Systems Services and the Schools, the Librarian, Dr Mark
Brown, said: 'Collaboration between services and academic groups has
been the key element in the success of the project. The Institutional
Repository will now become an integral part of the electronic library
service at Southampton.'
See here for further information on the Southampton repository
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/
Received on Mon Dec 20 2004 - 14:15:28 GMT