UC System Adopts Open-Access Policy

The Academic Senate of the University of California system passed an open-access policy late last month that will make future research articles by all UC faculty freely available to the public. The policy applies to the more than 8,000 faculty at all 10 campuses in the UC system and is estimated to cover some 40,000 publications annually. The policy had been in the works for six years. The intent of it “is to make these articles widely—and freely—available in order to advance research everywhere,” says Robert Powell, chair of the Academic Council, the administrative arm of the senate. Under the policy, researchers will grant UC a license on the article before making any agreements with publishers. In tandem with their publication, the papers will be deposited into eScholarship, UC’s open-access repository, where they will be freely available to anyone. UC joins more than 175 universities that have adopted similar open-access policies.