Two new versions of the MIT amendment to publication agreements have been released, in order to provide MIT authors with an amendment that incorporates the public access requirements of the 2013 White House Directive. This directive from the Office of Science and Technology Policy focuses on “Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research,” including making publications funded by major US agencies openly accessible.

The revised versions of the amendment are currently appropriate for researchers funded by the Department of Energy, whose requirements for sharing publications under the Directive began taking effect in October 2014.  Other major US agencies that sponsor research are expected to be releasing their requirements early in 2015, and the revised versions of the amendment are designed to be appropriate for those agencies as well.

There are two versions of the MIT amendment: one for faculty authors which also references rights related to the MIT Faculty Open Access Policy, and one for other MIT authors, which does not reference rights related to the faculty Policy.

These new versions, as with prior versions, may be attached to a standard publication agreement, with an indication that the signature on the agreement is subject to the attached amendment, which is also signed by the author.  The MIT amendment provides legally vetted language that retains key rights of interest to many MIT authors (such as the right to share their articles openly on the web) and rights required to meet the obligations of research funders, as well as those reflected in the faculty’s Open Access Policy.

Please contact Ellen Finnie Duranceau, Program Manager, Scholarly Publishing, Copyright, and Licensing, with any questions about the use of the MIT amendment.