On February 11, an Open Access resolution was passed unanimously by both the Boston University Faculty and University councils. Robert Hudson, BU's University Librarian, stated: "Although the resolution falls short of being a mandated policy (this helped with the unanimity of the governing bodies), it applies to the entire University. We think that this is a nearly unique approach for a large and comprehensive institution."
In an article in the campus newspaper BU Today, Wendy Mariner, the chair of the Faculty Council and a professor at the School of Law, at the School of Public Health, and at the School of Medicine, said “We believe this is the first time that a university as a whole has taken a stand on behalf of the university as opposed to a single school or college. We are looking forward to new forms of publication in the 21st century that will transform the ways that knowledge and information are shared.”
The article also noted faculty reaction:
The increased ownership and control is good news for researchers such as Barbara Millen, a professor and chair of the graduate nutrition program at the School of Medicine. Working on a book about nutrition research at one point in her career, Millen found herself in the paradoxical position of having to seek permission to use her own data after it was published in a journal that retained the copyright to her work. The challenge, says Millen, who cochaired the University Council committee that recommended the open access initiative, will be providing faculty with the tools to make their research available online.
“Open access will really highlight the tremendous productivity of our faculty,” says Millen. “Among the more important things needed to make it work is a collaboration between the libraries and our faculty to get their research onto the Web. It’s not an inconsequential task.”
Also, the article highlighted a compelling statistic -- that "Last year, according to an editorial in Environmental Health, only about 10 percent of published scientific articles were accessible without restrictions."
Posted by stemp003 at February 20, 2009 11:40 AM