Open Access Archivangelism

ETH Zürich (SWITZERLAND* institutional-mandate)

Institution's/Department's OA Eprint Archives

Institution's/Department's OA Self-Archiving Policy

It is the policy of the ETH Zürich to maximise the visibility, usage and impact of their research output by maximising online access to it for all would-be users and researchers worldwide.

Therefore the ETH Zürich:

Requires of staff and postgraduate students to post electronic copies of any research papers that have been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal (post-prints), theses and other scientific research output (monographs, reports, proceedings, videos etc.), to be made freely available as soon as possible into the institutional repository “ETH E-Collection” (http://e-collection.ethbib.ethz.ch/), if there are no legal objections. The ETH Zürich expects authors where possible, to retain their copyright. For detailed information see the rules of the ETH E-Collection.

Hong Kong University (CHINA* proposed-multi-institutional-mandate)

Institution's/Department's OA Eprint Archives

Proposed OA Self-Archiving Policy

HKU Research Committee Agrees to Endorse [the following policy proposal]:

As the majority of research in Hong Kong is funded by the RGC/UGC, their policies are critical. We would like to propose the following specific actions for the RGC/UGC’s consideration:

a) State clearly that all researchers funded by an RGC grant should aim to publish their results in the highest quality journals or books so as to maximize the influence and impact of the research outcome and that to achieve this when publishing research findings:

i. Researchers should look for suitable OA journals so that, where there is a choice between non OA and OA journals that are equally influential and high impact, the choice should be to publish the results in an OA journal.

ii. When a comparable OA journal does not exist, they should send the journal the Hong Kong author’s addendum (University of Hong Kong, 2008), which adds the right of placing some version (preprint or postprint) of the paper in their university’s institutional repository (IR). If necessary, seek funds from the RGC to pay open access charges up to an agreed limit; perhaps US$3,000, which is the fee agreed with the Wellcome Trust for most Elsevier journals (Elsevier, 2007).

iii. For books and book chapters that are published without a royalty agreement, send the publisher the Hong Kong author’s addendum to seek the right of placing some version in their university’s IR.

iv. Deposit all published papers in their IR, unless the journal refuses in writing. If the published version is refused, deposit the preprint or postprint, as allowed in number ii above.

v. Must provide evidence to the RGC in their progress report that the above steps have been undertaken.

"The Open Access Advantage"

by: John Bacon-Shone, Edwin Cheng, Anthony Ferguson, Carmel McNaught, David Palmer, Ah Chung Tsoi

Hong Kong Baptist University
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
The University of Hong Kong

October 3, 2008