SPEC Kit 332: Organization of Scholarly Communication Services · 165
University of Washington
Resolution Concerning Scholarly Publishing Alternatives and Authors’ Rights
http://www.lib.washington.edu/scholpub/actions/openaccessresolution/at_download/file
2. UW Libraries is encouraged to
provide relevant, current information regarding journal publishers, pricing, and authors’ rights to departments
and individual faculty members and
maintain and further develop ResearchWorks and related services and
allocate personnel to facilitate the deposit of faculty publications in ResearchWorks, and to obtain
publishers’ permission to deposit previously published works when possible and
3. the University of Washington administration is encouraged to:
provide resources to the Libraries and to academic units to foster these efforts and
work with departments and colleges to assure that the review process for promotion, tenure and merit takes
into consideration these new trends and realities in academic publication.
Approved by:
Faculty Senate
April 23, 2009
Approved by:
Senate Executive Committee
April 6, 2009
Submitted by:
Scholarly Communication Committee
Faculty Council on University Libraries
&Faculty Council on Research
April 6, 2009
Background and Rationale:
The following resolution was drafted by the Scholarly Communication Committee, an ad hoc committee established
by the Senate Executive Committee in October 2008, the membership of which consists of representatives from the
Faculty Council on University Libraries, the Faculty Council on Research, and the University Libraries.
The rationale for the formation of the committee grew out of discussions in the Faculty Council on University Libraries
about the escalating costs to the Libraries of both online and print subscriptions of scholarly journals, due partly to the
increasing dominance of a few large commercial publishers that have restricted dissemination of knowledge by the
imposition of monopolistic pricing and “bundling” policies upon institutional subscribers. One response to this
challenge has been the development of “open access” journals, the publishing costs of which are borne by authors,
educational institutions, and/or funding agencies rather than subscribers. A related issue of publishers’ control over
scholarly communication is the limitation of authors’ rights to use material from their publications in teaching and in
subsequent works. The charge of the Scholarly Communication Committee was “to draft a resolution about open
access and faculty authors’ rights.”
Increasing appreciation of differing publishing cultures across academic disciplines resulted in alteration of the
Committee’s initial approach. Journals with the most egregious pricing policies tend to be concentrated in the
sciences, technology, and medicine – the same fields in which the importance of immediate availability of information
together with potential publishing support from funding agencies make open access most practicable. Open access
publishing is arguably less feasible in the arts and humanities in which generally lower journal costs place less of a
financial burden on libraries and authors’ publication expenses are unlikely to be offset by funding agencies. The
committee therefore broadened its advocacy to promotion of faculty members’ awareness of journal pricing and
publishing alternatives and of the impacts of their choices of publishers (by writing, reviewing, and editing) on the
cost, availability, and dissemination of their work to scholars and other interested individuals around the world.
The resolution also seeks to promote faculty members’ awareness of mechanisms they can use to retain rights to
their work, such as adding an addendum delineating those rights to publishers’ publication agreements (example
attached). Included among these may be the right to deposit publications in a freely accessible institutional or
discipline-based repository, such as the Libraries’ “ResearchWorks at The University of Washington”
https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks. In support of this activity, the resolution calls upon the Libraries and
the University of Washington administration to further develop, publicize, and facilitate faculty authors’ use of
ResearchWorks.
The resolution has been unanimously approved by the Scholarly Communication Committee and its two parent
councils, the Faculty Council on University Libraries and the Faculty Council on Research, and unanimously
endorsed by the Libraries Cabinet.
University of Washington
Resolution Concerning Scholarly Publishing Alternatives and Authors’ Rights
http://www.lib.washington.edu/scholpub/actions/openaccessresolution/at_download/file
2. UW Libraries is encouraged to
provide relevant, current information regarding journal publishers, pricing, and authors’ rights to departments
and individual faculty members and
maintain and further develop ResearchWorks and related services and
allocate personnel to facilitate the deposit of faculty publications in ResearchWorks, and to obtain
publishers’ permission to deposit previously published works when possible and
3. the University of Washington administration is encouraged to:
provide resources to the Libraries and to academic units to foster these efforts and
work with departments and colleges to assure that the review process for promotion, tenure and merit takes
into consideration these new trends and realities in academic publication.
Approved by:
Faculty Senate
April 23, 2009
Approved by:
Senate Executive Committee
April 6, 2009
Submitted by:
Scholarly Communication Committee
Faculty Council on University Libraries
&Faculty Council on Research
April 6, 2009
Background and Rationale:
The following resolution was drafted by the Scholarly Communication Committee, an ad hoc committee established
by the Senate Executive Committee in October 2008, the membership of which consists of representatives from the
Faculty Council on University Libraries, the Faculty Council on Research, and the University Libraries.
The rationale for the formation of the committee grew out of discussions in the Faculty Council on University Libraries
about the escalating costs to the Libraries of both online and print subscriptions of scholarly journals, due partly to the
increasing dominance of a few large commercial publishers that have restricted dissemination of knowledge by the
imposition of monopolistic pricing and “bundling” policies upon institutional subscribers. One response to this
challenge has been the development of “open access” journals, the publishing costs of which are borne by authors,
educational institutions, and/or funding agencies rather than subscribers. A related issue of publishers’ control over
scholarly communication is the limitation of authors’ rights to use material from their publications in teaching and in
subsequent works. The charge of the Scholarly Communication Committee was “to draft a resolution about open
access and faculty authors’ rights.”
Increasing appreciation of differing publishing cultures across academic disciplines resulted in alteration of the
Committee’s initial approach. Journals with the most egregious pricing policies tend to be concentrated in the
sciences, technology, and medicine – the same fields in which the importance of immediate availability of information
together with potential publishing support from funding agencies make open access most practicable. Open access
publishing is arguably less feasible in the arts and humanities in which generally lower journal costs place less of a
financial burden on libraries and authors’ publication expenses are unlikely to be offset by funding agencies. The
committee therefore broadened its advocacy to promotion of faculty members’ awareness of journal pricing and
publishing alternatives and of the impacts of their choices of publishers (by writing, reviewing, and editing) on the
cost, availability, and dissemination of their work to scholars and other interested individuals around the world.
The resolution also seeks to promote faculty members’ awareness of mechanisms they can use to retain rights to
their work, such as adding an addendum delineating those rights to publishers’ publication agreements (example
attached). Included among these may be the right to deposit publications in a freely accessible institutional or
discipline-based repository, such as the Libraries’ “ResearchWorks at The University of Washington”
https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks. In support of this activity, the resolution calls upon the Libraries and
the University of Washington administration to further develop, publicize, and facilitate faculty authors’ use of
ResearchWorks.
The resolution has been unanimously approved by the Scholarly Communication Committee and its two parent
councils, the Faculty Council on University Libraries and the Faculty Council on Research, and unanimously
endorsed by the Libraries Cabinet.
