Liege Mandate Definitely Immediate-Deposit/Optional-Access (or Dual Deposit/Release: IDOA/DDR)

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[The following is a posting to the American Scientist Open Access Forum by Professor Bernard Rentier, Rector of the University of Liège.]

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Yesterday, Klaus Graf reacted rather strongly to the announcement of the Liège University repository mandate, stating [in the American Scientist Open Access Forum] that its "practice and legal framework is nonsense."

It seems to me that perhaps he may have missed a few essential aspects of this mandate, essentially the way it is handled in practice, the legal wherewithal and the reasons for imposing it.

Below is the English translation of the message I sent to the whole University Community on November 26, 2008. I believe that, rather than a lengthy explanation of how the Liège mandate works, this message tells it all much better.

It may perhaps be useful as well for those who wish to find a way to obtain compliance within their own universities. It demonstrates also that the Liège Mandate is indeed IDOA/DDR (Immediate-Deposit/Optional- Access -- Dual Deposit/Release), to use the latest definitions coined in this forum.

Happy New Year to all !

Bernard Rentier

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Madame, Monsieur, Cher(e) Collègue,

The increase in international visibility of the ULg [Université de Liège] and its researchers, mainly through their publications, as well as the support for the worldwide development of an open and free access to scientific works (Open Access) are two essential objectives at the heart of my action, as you probably know.

At my request, the Institutional Repository "ORBi" (Open Repository & Bibliography) has been set up at the ULg by the Libraries Network to meet these objectives.

[1] The experimental encoding phase based on volunteerism being now successfully completed, we can step forward and enter the "production phase" this Wednesday November 26th, 2008. I take this opportunity to thank all the professors and researchers who have already filed in ORBi hundreds of their references, 70% of them with the full text. Thanks to their patience, ORBi's fine tuning could be achieved.

From today onward, it is incumbent upon each ULg member to feed ORBi with his/her own references. In this respect, the Administrative Board of the University has decided to make it mandatory for all ULg members:

- to deposit the bibliographic references of ALL their publications since 2002;

- to deposit the full text of ALL their articles published in periodicals since 2002.

Access to these full texts will only be granted with the author's consent and according to the rules applicable to author's rights and copyrights. The University is indeed very keen on respecting the rights of all stakeholders.

[2] For future publications, deposit in ORBi will be mandatory as soon as the article is accepted by the editor.

[3] I wish to remind you that, as announced a year ago in March 2007, starting October 1st, 2009, only those references introduced in ORBi will be taken into consideration as the official list of publications accompanying any curriculum vitæ in all evaluation procedures 'in house' (designations, promotions, grant applications, etc.).

Information seminars have been planned during the next months to allow every one of you to make the tool your own thing. Help is also accessible online, such as the simplified user's guide (also available as a leaflet) and the Depositor's Guide.

The development of ORBi offers multiple advantages not only to the Institution, but also to the researchers and their teams, such as:

- a considerable speeding up of the dissemination and visibility of the scientific works (as soon as publication approval is granted;

- a considerable increase in visibility for the published works through referencing in the main search engines (Googlescholar, OAI metaengines, etc.);

- centralised and perennial conservation of publications allowing multiple exploitation possibilities (integration in personal web pages, in institutional web pages, export of reference lists towards other applications and to funding organisations such as the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research); - etc.

I hope that, despite the time you are going to devote to this somewhat tedious task, you will soon realise the benefits of this institutional policy.

With many thanks,

Bernard Rentier
Rector
University of Liege
7, place du 20 Aout
4000 Liege, Belgium
Tel: +32-4-366 9700