{"id":2092,"date":"2016-08-04T08:49:11","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T12:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraries-test.mit.edu\/scholarly\/?page_id=2092"},"modified":"2025-05-29T20:25:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T20:25:20","slug":"faq-on-the-oa-policy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/mit-open-access\/faq-on-the-oa-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"FAQ on the OA policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Purpose of MIT’s faculty open access\u00a0policy<\/h3>\n
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What is the goal of the policy?<\/a><\/h3>\n
The goal is expressed in the first line of the policy<\/a>: \u201cThe Faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Is MIT\u2019s policy unique?<\/a><\/h3>\n
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No.\u00a0Harvard University\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences,\u00a0Harvard Law School, the\u00a0Stanford School of Education, among many others,\u00a0have similar policies. See a\u00a0list of universities in the US that have policies<\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0complete world-wide list\u00a0<\/a>of various kinds of open access policies.<\/p>\n

Research funders are supporting such efforts as well. For instance, the\u00a0National Institutes of Health<\/a>\u00a0was one of the first federal funders to require posting of articles derived from research they fund in an\u00a0open-access repository. See more information on research funder policies here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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What does the policy do for me?<\/a><\/h3>\n
The web makes it possible for faculty to share their articles widely, openly, and freely; in addition, research has repeatedly shown that articles available freely online are more often cited and have greater impact than those not freely available. While many faculty already make their writings available on their web pages, some are prevented from doing so by perceived or actual limits set on such sharing in their publisher copyright transfer agreements. This policy will allow you to legally make your writings openly accessible, and it will enable MIT to help you do so.<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Complying with the policy<\/h3>\n
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How do I comply with the policy?<\/a><\/h3>\n
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The policy operates automatically to give MIT a license in any scholarly articles faculty members complete after its adoption and while they are at MIT.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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What if a journal publisher refuses to publish my article because of the prior permission given to MIT under the policy?<\/a><\/h3>\n
You have a number of options. One is to try to persuade the publisher that it should accept MIT\u2019s non-exclusive license in order to be able to publish your article. Another is to seek a different publisher. A third is to consult with the our office\u00a0or the Office of General Counsel about taking steps to address the publisher\u2019s specific concerns. A fourth is to obtain a waiver for the article under the policy (see more below under Opting Out.)<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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When and where do I submit a paper to DSpace@MIT under the policy?<\/a><\/h3>\n
Papers should be submitted as of the date of publication.\u00a0To submit a paper under the policy<\/strong>, upload the author\u2019s final manuscript, post peer-review, via a\u00a0web form<\/a>.\u00a0If you have already submitted this version to a preprint server (e.g. arXiv), you may email the paper\u2019s identifying repository number, or the URL, instead of the paper.<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Scope of the policy<\/h3>\n
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What kinds of writings does this apply to?<\/a><\/h3>\n
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It applies to \u201cscholarly articles.\u201d Using terms from the\u00a0Budapest Open Access Initiative<\/a>, scholarly articles are articles that describe the fruits of research and that authors give to the world for the sake of inquiry and knowledge without expectation of payment. Such articles are typically presented in peer-reviewed scholarly journals and conference proceedings.<\/p>\n

Many written products are not encompassed under this specific notion of scholarly article, such as books, popular articles, commissioned articles, fiction and poetry, encyclopedia entries, ephemeral writings, lecture notes, lecture videos, or other copyrighted works. The Open Access Policy is not meant to address these kinds of works.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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What version of the paper is submitted under the policy?<\/a><\/h3>\n
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The author\u2019s final version of the article; that is, the author\u2019s manuscript with any changes made as a result of the peer-review process, but prior to publisher\u2019s copy-editing or formatting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Does the policy apply to articles I\u2019ve already written?<\/a><\/h3>\n
The policy doesn\u2019t apply to articles that were completed before the policy was adopted March 18, 2009, nor to any articles for which you entered into an incompatible publishing agreement before the policy was adopted. The policy also does not apply to any articles you write after leaving MIT.<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Does the policy apply to co-authored papers?<\/a><\/h3>\n
Yes. Each joint author of an article holds copyright in the article and, individually, has the authority to grant MIT a non-exclusive license. Joint authors are those who participate in the preparation of the article with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of the whole.<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Why aren\u2019t images covered by the policy?<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Images are created by faculty in such a wide range of contexts and for such a wide range of purposes that it was too complex to include images in the policy. To the extent that images are contained in the articles, however, they would be covered by the policy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Why aren\u2019t Ph.D. theses included in the policy?<\/a><\/h3>\n
MIT has already made a commitment to making Ph.D. theses openly available worldwide.\u00a0DSpace@MIT makes more than 40,000 selected theses and dissertations<\/a>\u00a0from all MIT departments, dating as far back as the mid 1800\u2032s, openly available to the world. Since 2004, all new Masters and Ph.D. theses are being scanned and added to this collection after degrees are awarded. Regardless of whether copyright is held by the student or the Institute, the MIT Libraries publish the thesis electronically, allowing open access viewing. While there are fees charged for scanning and printing theses, these fees are used to scan more theses and make them available for open viewing. Without these fees, only a very small subset of theses (those submitted electronically) would be available online. While the current system is not strictly open access as defined by the\u00a0Budapest Open Access Initiative<\/a>, which would include no limits on printing, it\u2019s a significant step in that direction.<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Opting out of the policy<\/h3>\n
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How do I opt out?<\/a><\/h3>\n
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To opt out, fill out\u00a0a simple web form<\/a>, or send an email or other written notice to\u00a0oapolicyoptout@mit.edu<\/a>\u00a0informing MIT of the following:<\/p>\n