University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Open-Access Policy for Library Faculty

Passed by a Unanimous Vote of the Library Faculty on March 5, 2013

Whereas the Library Faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) recognize the vital importance of open-access archiving for the enrichment and expansion of scholarly communication in the Age of the Internet, we adopt the following policy in order to ensure that our research and scholarly works are freely available in perpetuity to the widest possible audience.We, the Library Faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, resolve the following:

  • We encourage all library faculty to publish in journals that are open access or allow open access archiving.
  • Before we sign a publisher’s copyright agreement for a journal article, we will verify our right to archive the work in NC DOCKS (UNCG’s non-commercial, open-access repository of institutional scholarly works) or attempt to retain that right by adding an author addendum.
  • We will submit our journal articles to NC DOCKS as soon as possible after acceptance for publication.
  • We will promote open access to all faculty on campus and encourage them to archive their scholarly works in NC DOCKS.
  • We grant to UNCG Libraries a non-exclusive, perpetual license to archive our submitted works in NC DOCKS.
  • We grant to the UNCG Libraries the right to migrate one or more copies of our submissions to any medium or format for security and preservation purposes.
  • Although library faculty are encouraged to archive all of their scholarly works in NC DOCKS, this policy will apply only to journal articles created after approval of the policy by a vote of the library faculty.
  • Recognizing that some publishers do not allow archiving in institutional repositories, each library faculty member who reaches an agreement with such a publisher must provide to the Dean of Libraries a written explanation for his/her actions that preclude the ability to archive, and Dean will waive the application of the policy.

For examples of open access policies and mandates approved at other libraries and universities, see ROARMAP.

If you have questions about this policy, please contact Anna Craft, Coordinator of Metadata Services, arcraft@uncg.edu