First Scottish University Green OA Self-Archiving Mandate: Stirling

[Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk>]

Scotland's first University Green OA self-archiving mandate has 
been adopted by University of Stirling.

This is actually Scotland's second Green OA self-archiving 
mandate: The first was a funder mandate: Scottish Executive 
Health Department.

It is also the 17th UK Green OA mandate (13 funders mandates, 3 
institutional mandates, 1 departmental mandate).

The UK leads the world in both funder and institutional mandates.

(But watch out for the waking giant: the 791 universities in 46 
countries in the European University Association, whose Council 
has unanimously recommended mandating Green OA self-archiving.)

http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 15:42:39 +0100
From: Michael White <michael.white  STIR.AC.UK>
To: JISC-REPOSITORIES  JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: STORRE (Stirling Online Research Repository)

You may be interested in the following press release and 
associated policy the University of Stirling put out today in 
relation to its recently issued institutional mandate.

Michael White
eLearning Developer
Centre for eLearning Development (CeLD)
University of Stirling
Stirling SCOTLAND
Email: michael.white  stir.ac.uk

http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/celd/

=================================================

Media Release - Wednesday 9 April 2008

STIRLING RESEARCH GOES GLOBAL

The University of Stirling has become the first academic 
institution in the UK to oblige staff to make all their published 
research available online.

Stirling is leading the way in open access to its research work, 
after the University's Academic Council issued an institutional 
mandate which requires self-archiving of all theses and journal 
articles.

Professor Ian Simpson, Deputy Principal (Research and Knowledge 
Transfer) said: "We believe that the outcomes of all publicly 
funded research should be made available as widely as possible. 
By ensuring free online access to all our research output, we 
will maximise the visibility and impact of the University's work 
to researchers worldwide."

The four year project to create STORRE (Stirling Online Research 
Repository) has been brought to fruition by information 
technology specialists Clare Allan and Michael White.

Clare Allan said: "The University now requires all published 
journal articles to be deposited by authors, as soon as possible 
after they are accepted for publication, and in compliance with 
the publishers' copyright agreements.

"It is an important landmark in our archival development and 
marks the conclusion of a process that started in 2004 when 
Stirling was one of 20 academic institutions which signed up to 
the OATS (Open Access Team for Scotland) declaration.  The 
repository project initially focused on electronic theses and in 
session 2006/07 we became one of the first universities to 
require these to be submitted electronically.

"The next stage was a pilot scheme for self-archiving of journal 
articles by some researchers, and this has now become mandatory. 
We are also building up a retrospective archive."

Many of the major UK research funders now require open access to 
published results from research awards they fund, but by going a 
step further and ensuring that this is done in every case, the 
University of Stirling is setting a high standard of access that 
is expected to reap rewards.

Michael White added: "We are hopeful of a very positive response 
from researchers to the requirement to self-archive, as they will 
benefit from greater visibility of their work - such as increased 
citations from their published work, which in turn can lead to 
improved funding. To quantify this, they can track how often each 
article is viewed.

"Being a secure central and searchable database, STORRE acts as a 
record of each individual's research career and can help with 
research reporting exercises. The repository also conforms to 
open standards for metadata harvesting, enabling articles to be 
included in national, international and subject-based 
cross-repository searches.  Even general internet search engines, 
such as google, rank results from repositories far higher than 
personal pages, which makes it easier for others to find their 
work. The figures are impressive."

Further information:

Andy Mitchell, Media Relations Manager, the University of Stirling
Tel 01786 467058
mediarelations  stir.ac.uk <mailto:mediarelations  stir.ac.uk>
STORRE is growing rapidly and can be searched at
http://dspace.stir.ac.uk <http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/>

====================================================

University of Stirling Open Access Institutional Repository 
Policy

The University of Stirling:

* supports the principle that the outcomes of publicly funded 
research should be made available as widely as possible.

* welcomes moves by Research Councils to promote unrestricted 
access to the published output from the research they fund.

* aims to maximise the visibility, usage and impact of the 
University's research output by maximising online access to it 
for all would-be users and researchers worldwide.

* aims to minimise the effort that individual members of the 
University must expend in order to provide open online access to 
their research output.

* requires all staff to submit copies of their research output, 
after it has been accepted as suitable for publication, to the 
University of Stirling Institutional Repository.

It is our policy:

1. To maximise the visibility, citation, usage and impact of our 
research output by maximising online access to it for all 
would-be users and researchers worldwide.

2. To minimise the effort that each of us has to expend in order 
to provide open online access to our research output.

3. That all journal articles, published from January 2007, are to 
be self-archived in the University's Digital Research Repository 
(http://dspace.stir.ac.uk).  The process of self-archiving will 
be supported by Information Services.

Submission Policy - concerning depositors, quality & copyright

1. Items may only be deposited by accredited members of the 
organisation, or their delegates.

2. Authors may only submit their own work for archiving 
(including co-authored papers).

3. Articles are to be submitted immediately upon acceptance for 
publication.

4. The author's final accepted draft should be submitted. 
Submission of this version complies with the policies of the 
majority of publishers.  Where publisher conditions allow, or 
require it, the publishers own version, or a pre-print, will be 
accepted.

5. Items must be submitted in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document 
Format (pdf), or, where appropriate, an alternative format as 
agreed by the Repository Administrator.

6. The administrator will vet items for the eligibility of 
authors/depositors, relevance to the scope of the University of 
Stirling Institutional Repository, valid layout & format, and the 
exclusion of spam.  Publisher policies will also be checked to 
ensure compliance.

7. The validity and authenticity of the content of submissions is 
the sole responsibility of the depositor.

8. Items can be deposited at any time, but will not be made 
publicly visible until the item has been published, and until any 
publishers' or funders' embargo period has expired.

9. All deposited items will contain any acknowledgements as 
specified by publisher policies; the Repository Administrator 
will ensure these are added as required.

10. Any copyright violations contained within items are entirely 
the responsibility of the authors/depositors.

11. If University of Stirling Institutional Repository receives 
proof of copyright violation, the relevant item will be removed 
immediately.

Compliance with Publisher and Research Funder Policies

1. Our policy is compatible with publishers' copyright agreements 
as follows:

* For all submitted items the Repository Administrator will check 
the Publisher's policy.  Most policies are documented via the 
SHERPA/ROMEO database (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php) and 
Information Services will use this as a major support tool.

* Many publishers will allow the peer-reviewed final draft to be 
self-archived, often specifying that a specific acknowledgement 
be used along with the self-archived item.  The Repository 
Administrator will ensure any such acknowledgements are included 
in the Repository.

* Occasionally publishers allow their own final pdf version to be 
self-archived, in these instances the Repository Administrator 
will contact the submitter to ask for the appropriate item 
version.

* Occasionally publishers will not allow either the author's own 
final, post refereed version or the publisher's version to be 
self-archived.  In these instances the Repository Administrator 
will contact the submitter to inform them, and, if appropriate, 
recommend that the author's preprint version (pre-refereed 
version) can be submitted instead if desired by the author.

2. For all submitted items, where Research Funder information is 
supplied, the Repository Administrator will check the Research 
Funder's policies as regards ensuring Open Access to research 
results and publications arising from their funding. Policies are 
documented via the SHERPA/JULIET data base (Research Funders 
Archiving Mandates and Guidelines 
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/juliet/index.html) and Information 
Services will use this as a major support tool. Where possible, 
the Repository Administrator will fulfil any archiving 
requirements on behalf of the submitting author, or alternatively 
inform them of what they need do to fulfil the conditions of 
funding.

3. We do not require deposit of the full text of books or 
research monographs.

Preservation Policy

1. Items will be retained indefinitely.

2. University of Stirling Institutional Repository will try to 
ensure continued readability and accessibility.

3. Items may be migrated to new file formats where necessary.

4. It may not be possible to guarantee the readability of some 
unusual file formats.

5. University of Stirling Institutional Repository regularly 
backs up its files according to current best practice.

6. The original bit stream is retained for all items, in addition 
to any upgraded formats.

7. Items may not normally be removed from University of Stirling 
Institutional Repository.

8. Acceptable reasons for withdrawal include:

* Journal publishers' rules

* Proven copyright violation or plagiarism

* Legal requirements and proven violations

* National Security

* Falsified research

* At University of Stirling's discretion

9. Withdrawn items are not deleted per se, but are removed from 
public view.  Since any item that has existed at some time may 
have been cited, a "tombstone" marker will be supplied when the 
item is requested. This will include the original metadata (for 
verification) plus a withdrawal explanation statement.  The 
metadata will be visible, but not searchable.

10. Items will be deleted from the Repository if there is a legal 
requirement to do so, or if it is deemed by the University to be 
in its best interests. Deletion of items will mean removal of the 
item itself, plus any metadata.  In this instance there will be 
no "tombstone" marker.

11. Changes to deposited items are not permitted.

12. If necessary, an updated version may be deposited. The 
earlier version may be withdrawn from public view.

13. In the event of University of Stirling Institutional 
Repository being closed down, the database will be transferred to 
another appropriate archive.

========================================