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MIT authors’ opt-in open access license (MIT only)

In 2009 the MIT faculty adopted a powerful and effective open access policy, which, through a license to MIT, allows authors to legally make their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts freely accessible through the open access repository DSpace@MIT and other venues.

As of April 2017, all MIT authors, including students, postdocs, and staff, have access to the same powerful means of retaining rights, via an “opt-in” open access license.

Below is a voluntary, opt-in license that mirrors the language of the faculty open access policy. As with the faculty policy, the opt-in license allows you to retain control of the copyright in your writings. You are instead granting to MIT permission to hold onto rights that you can use to legally make your work openly accessible. It applies to all scholarly articles written by an author after signing the license and while affiliated with MIT.

Authors covered by the MIT faculty open access policy do not need to sign this license.


    Sign the MIT authors' opt-in open access license

    Authors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are committed to disseminating the fruits of their research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, by signing this license, I hereby grant to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nonexclusive permission to make available my scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles for the purpose of open dissemination. In legal terms, I grant to MIT a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of my scholarly articles, in any medium, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit, and to authorize others to do the same. This license will apply to all scholarly articles written while I am employed by, have an Academic Instructional Staff or Academic Research Staff (e.g., Postdoctoral Fellow) appointment from, or am registered as a student at MIT, except for any articles completed before the execution of this license and any articles for which I entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the execution of this license. This license will not cover any article for which I notify MIT in writing that I am opting out of the license for that particular article. To assist the Institute in distributing the scholarly articles, as of the date of publication, I will make available an electronic copy of my final version of the article at no charge to a designated representative of the Provost's Office in appropriate formats (such as PDF) specified by the Provost's Office. I understand that the Provost's Office will make the scholarly article available to the public in an open-access repository.


    If you have any questions about working with the MIT authors’ opt-in open access license, please contact scholarlypub@mit.edu.