OSU Faculty Unanimously Approve Open Access Policy
After a unanimous vote by the Faculty Senate, Oregon State University became the first public or private university in the Pacific Northwest to adopt a university-wide open access publishing policy.
OSU Provost and Vice President Sabah Randhawa explained the motivation behind the vote:
As a land grant and a comprehensive research university with international impact, OSU is committed to disseminate its research and scholarship as widely as possible… The policy enables our faculty to make its creative work more accessible to a wider audience, including other scientists and educators, the public, and policy-makers – and in a more timely manner.
Recognizing the importance of publication for faculty promotion and tenure, the resolution does allow OSU faculty members waivers for articles published in scholarly journals which still refuse to support open access.
University Librarian Faye Chadwell emphasizes the good timing of the decision to embrace OA:
OSU’s policy has situated us to respond proactively to mandates from funding agencies to make sponsored research available to the public. With this new policy and workflows in place, as well as a robust institutional repository, OSU can be part of a solution…