Harvard's 3rd Green OA Mandate, Planet's 69th: John F. Kennedy School of Government

From: Stevan Harnad <amsciforum_at_GMAIL.COM>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:01:20 -0400

    [ The following text is in the "windows-1252" character set. ]
    [ Your display is set for the "iso-8859-1" character set. ]
    [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ]

Many thanks to Amy Brand, Program Manager of the Harvard University
Library Office for Scientific Communication (OSC), for forwarding
this press release announcing the adoption of Harvard's 3rd Green OA
Mandate, this time by the John F. Kennedy School of Government. 
And yet another well-deserved round of congratulations to Stuart
Shieber, Faculty Director of the OSC and the architect of this
remarkable (and seemingly unending) series of Green OA mandates from
Harvard! (Harvard Medical School looks like it will be next!)

One can only echo what is stated at the end of the press release,
which is that although this is the world's 69th Green OA
self-archiving mandate, "none are considered as far-reaching as the
one put forth at Harvard"! (Nor, I might add, is there now any better
model for emulation worldwide.)

S.H.


      For Immediate Release: March 16, 2009 Media Contact: Doug
      Gavel (617) 495-1115 Harvard Kennedy School
      Communications

      Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Votes for Open Access for
      Scholarly Articles

      CAMBRIDGE, MA ? The faculty of the John F. Kennedy School
      of Government at Harvard University voted overwhelmingly
      last week to make all faculty members? scholarly articles
      publically available online at no charge, providing for
      the widest possible dissemination of faculty research and
      scholarship. The historic vote adds Harvard Kennedy
      School to a growing list of faculties at the university
      to endorse the initiative.

      ?The scholarly articles authored by Harvard Kennedy
      School (HKS) faculty members enhance the understanding of
      many critical and urgent public policy issues, and
      by embracing open access we seek to maximize the avenues
      by which these ideas are shared,? said Kennedy School
      Dean David T. Ellwood. ?In the developing
      world especially, where access to expensive journals is
      rare, there is a pressing need for access to the latest
      policy advice and scholarship coming from HKS faculty.?

      Under the new policy, HKS will make articles authored by
      faculty members available in an open access online
      repository, the contents of which will be searchable
      through web tools such as Google Scholar. Authors will
      maintain the right to distribute articles on their own
      websites, and educators will have the right to freely
      provide the articles to students, so long as the
      materials are not used for profit. Faculty members will
      have the ability to ?opt out? of the requirements of the
      new policy in the case of specific articles in which the
      policy proves to be incompatible with the obligations
      under a particular publisher?s contract.

      The vote at HKS follows a proposal by a university-wide
      committee aimed at encouraging wider dissemination of
      scholarly work. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS)
      and faculty at Harvard Law School (HLS) each voted last
      year to endorse legislation similar to that approved by
      the HKS faculty.

      Stuart M. Shieber, the James O. Welch Jr. and Virginia B.
      Welch professor of computer science (FAS) and faculty
      director of the Office for Scholarly Communication,
      who introduced the legislation last year said, ?I am
      delighted that the faculty of yet another school at
      Harvard has chosen to embrace open access and that
      momentum is spreading on campus. Now that the Office for
      Scholarly Communication is staffed, the DASH
      (Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard) repository is
      in development, and we have experience working with both
      the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Law School, we
      look forward to working with the Harvard Kennedy School
      to implement their faculty?s important decision smoothly
      and efficiently.?

      Although other academic institutions have considered
      similar open access policies, none are considered as
      far-reaching as the one put forth at Harvard.
Received on Tue Mar 17 2009 - 02:03:24 GMT