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UI Open Access Policy: Procedures for Compliance

Information about the University Policy on Open Access to Research Articles.

Procedures for Complying with the Policy on Open Access to Research at the University of Illinois

  1. Determine if the policy applies to you: 
    • This Open Access policy covers all current Faculty members as defined by the Statutes: “members of the academic staff with the rank or title in that unit of “professor, associate professor, or assistant professor who are tenured or receiving probationary credit toward tenure, and those administrators in the direct line of responsibility for academic affairs” (Article II: Section 3.(a).1).
  2. Determine if the policy applies to your scholarly article: 
    • The policy applies to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored while the creator is a member of the Faculty except for (1) scholarly articles that fall outside of the scope of copyrightable works described in General Rules Article III, Sections 4a and 4c; (2) any articles published before the adoption of this policy; and (3) any articles for which the Faculty member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy.  
  3. Complete your manuscript and prepare it for submission to a Journal
    • Copyright is automatic assigned upon creation.  
    • The General Rules of the University of Illinois affirm that Faculty retain “copyright rights to academic copyrightable works” (Article III. Section 4(a)).
  4. A non- exclusive license is granted to the University of Illinois.  As a result of the Policy on Open Access to Research Articles at the University of Illinois:
    • Each Faculty member, for the purpose of making his or her scholarly articles widely and
      freely available in an open access repository, grants to the University of Illinois a
      nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright
      relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do
      the same. Any other systematic uses of the licensed articles by the University of Illinois must
      be approved by the Campus Senate. This policy does not transfer copyright ownership,
      which generally remains with Faculty authors under existing University of Illinois General
      Rules (Article III. Section 4(a)).
      • Upon express direction by a Faculty member, the University of Illinois will waive application of the license for a particular article or delay access for a specified period of time.   Request a Waiver.
  5. Submit manuscript to journal as usual and sign the publication agreement when requested.  The publication agreements among publishers differ: 
    • Retain your rights: Some publishers will allow you to retain your copyright or request you assign a Creative Commons License
    • Sign away rights: Many author agreements request you assign your copyrights to the publisher. You may You may continue to do this.  Many publishers allow you to retain a non-exclusive right to post your article in a repository. 
      • In rare instances, the publisher requires a waiver of the non-exclusive license granted the U of I.  In these situations, Request a Waiver.  (In some cases where the publisher requires a waiver, they may still allow the final peer reviewed manuscript to be uploaded in an Institutional Repository).
    • Note: You must still retain any rights as required by granting agencies in order to comply with the public access requirement of your funder.
  6. Once your article is published, three methods are available to meet compliance.
    • Article is already Openly Accessible
      • Authors who have deposited their articles in an OA repository (i.e. PubMed Central, arXiv) to comply with federal granting agency mandates or other reasons OR authors that have published their article in an OA Journal are already in compliance.  You do not need to do anything further.  (The library will still upload it in INDIGO by emailing us the author’s final version).
    • Article is not already Openly Accessible
      • University Library will upload in INDIGO.  If the journal is indexed in Scopus or Web of Science, you be contacted requesting the final peer reviewed manuscript.  Reply to the email by attaching the manuscript and Library staff will upload the article into INDIGO.  If allowed by the publisher, we will upload the publisher PDF.  Appropriate embargoes required by the publisher will be set by library staff.  
      • Upload the article yourself in INDIGO.  If the journal is not indexed in Scopus or Web of Science, other efficient methods are not available to track UIC publications.  Upload the article into INDIGO yourself.  Or email uicindigo@gmail.com with the manuscript and complete citation, and library staff will upload the article into INDIGO.  Appropriate embargoes required by the publisher will be set by library staff.  
  7. The Campus Senate, through the Senate Academic Services committee, and the Office of the Provost will be jointly responsible for implementing this policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending any changes to the Faculty of the campus. 

OA Policy Compliance Procedures Tree