164 · Representative Documents: Scholarly Communication Resolutions
University of Washington
Resolution Concerning Scholarly Publishing Alternatives and Authors’ Rights
http://www.lib.washington.edu/scholpub/actions/openaccessresolution/at_download/file
Class C Bulletin No. 481 Resolution Concerning
Scholarly Publishing Alternatives
and Authors’ Rights
WHEREAS, the primary mission of the University of Washington is the advancement, dissemination and preservation
of knowledge and
WHEREAS, the products of faculty scholarship are generated for the public benefit, are supported in part by nonprofit
or public agencies, and are created, peer reviewed, and edited by faculty with little or no direct remuneration and
WHEREAS, scholarly journal publication, especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and medicine, is
increasingly being dominated by and aggregated in the hands of a few large commercial publishing houses and
WHEREAS, the costs to academic libraries of journals published by these commercial publishers have risen far more
rapidly than inflation, thereby limiting free and open exchange of scholarly information and
WHEREAS, the publication agreements offered by some publishers limit authors’ rights to use their own work in their
teaching and research and/or to archive their work in an openly accessible repository and
WHEREAS, proprietary formats, new forms of digital protection, and new subscription models for selling “backfile”
databases to libraries threaten to further restrict access to scholarly resources and
WHEREAS, the continued increases in journal costs have impaired the Libraries’ purchasing power and have forced
the Libraries to conduct a serials review that will almost certainly result in widespread cancellation of journal
subscriptions and
WHEREAS, the current system for production and distribution of scholarly works is increasingly dysfunctional and
fiscally unsustainable and restricts rather than increases access to and dissemination of knowledge and
WHEREAS, the University of Washington Libraries has established an online, freely accessible and searchable
repository, ResearchWorks at the University of Washington (ResearchWorks), for the dissemination and preservation
of scholarly works published by members of the University community therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, that
1. the University of Washington prepare for a future in which academic publications are increasingly available
through open sources by encouraging faculty members to:
assess the pricing practices and authors’ rights policies of journals with which they collaborate (as authors,
reviewers, and editors) and advocate for improvements therein and
adopt and use an Addendum to Publication Agreement such as that provided by the Scholarly Publishing
and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) in order to retain their rights to use their work in the classroom
and in future publications and to archive final accepted manuscripts and
publish scholarly works in moderately priced journals, in journals published by professional societies and
associations, or in peer-reviewed “open access” journals and
archive their work in the UW’s ResearchWorks or other repositories supported by research institutions,
professional societies, or government agencies in order to provide the widest and most affordable access to
their scholarship and
University of Washington
FACULTY SENATE
Box 351271
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