UMBC is a member of The Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI), which brings together representatives from North American universities with established faculty open access policies and those in the process of developing such policies.
SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is a global coalition committed to making Open the default for research and education. SPARC empowers people to solve big problems and make new discoveries through the adoption of policies and practices that advance Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education.
Peter Suber, Open Access in the United States, in Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects (ed. Neil Jacobs, 2006)..http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4317666
Peter Suber, Open Access in the United States, in Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects (ed. Neil Jacobs, 2006). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4317666
The sections of this Libguide Page on Open Access in the USA and Open Access in the World has been borrowed from the University of Ptitsburgh University Library System's OA in the USA and OA in the World pages created by John Barnett with minor revisions made by Lauren Collister. It's licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
It's important to note that materials licensed and paid for by the library for everyone in the UMBC community may appear free when working on campus or while logged in off-campus. You can determine that an item is free or open access if:
If an item is on subscription rather than free, all the full limitations of copyright apply. Information on using a subscription resources in your teaching is available under Copyright and Teaching, on the Library Copyright Libguide
The UMBC Faculty Senate approved the following resolution on December 13, 2016:
Open Access Resolution for the Academic Senate of
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County
The Faculty of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County is committed to disseminating its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In particular, as part of a public university system, the Faculty is dedicated to making its scholarship available to the people of Maryland and the world. Furthermore, the Faculty recognizes the benefits that accrue to themselves as individual scholars and to the scholarly enterprise from such wide dissemination, including greater recognition, more thorough review, consideration and critique, and a general increase in scientific, scholarly, and critical knowledge. In keeping with these considerations, and for the primary purpose of making our scholarly works widely and freely accessible, the Faculty adopts the following resolution.
To facilitate open access scholarly communication Faculty members are encouraged to seek venues for their works that will disseminate research and scholarship as widely as possible. In particular, when consistent with their professional development, members of the Faculty should endeavor to:
This resolution applies only to scholarly works authored or co-authored by a member of the Faculty since the adoption of this resolution. This resolution does not in any way prescribe or limit the venue of publication. This resolution neither requires nor prohibits the payment of fees or publication costs by authors.
The Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies (ROARMAP) is a searchable international registry of open access mandates and policies adopted by universities, research institutions and research funders that require or request their researchers to provide open access to their peer-reviewed research article output by depositing it in an open access repository. It charts the growth of open access policies and mandates.
UMBC Peer Institution Open Access Policies
UMBC Aspirational Peer Open Access Policies
Other Institutions' Open Access Policies
OA at the Federal Level
Many early endeavors in gathering and disseminating medical, science, and education information (e.g., the MEDLINE, AGRICOLA, and ERIC databases) began in the United States. Increasingly government policy at the national and even state levels are setting the pace for Open Access.
Signed into law in January 2019, this law codifies a policy of “open by default” for all government data. The bipartisan legislation requires federal agencies to publish government data in machine-readable and open formats and use open licenses. In addition, it directa agencies to support innovative uses of government data, adopt consistent data practices across government, and develop best practices for Open Data.
OA at the State Level
For the most up-to-date information, see the SPARC "OER Policy State-by-State" page, here: https://sparcopen.org/our-work/state-policy-tracking/. This page includes information on proposals as well as currently OER laws for each state.
Public domain works are not protected by copyright because their copyright term has expired or they fall within a category of works that are not subject to copyright law such as U.S. Federal Government Works. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission. More information on the public domain is available here.
OA in Other Countries
Some of the most innovative, progressive efforts in the Open Access movement have occurred in other countries. Here's a short list of policies and supporting agencies in selected countries.
OA on the International Stage
Action and initiatives on Open Access are occurring transnationally as well as in individual countries and institutions. Major organizations and governing bodies have declared interest in and support of Open Access to research.
