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http://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/Regulations_Open_Access-Policy.pdf

Regulations concerning the Open Access Policy

Adopted by the Senate on 15 December 2008

Pursuant to the Open Access Policy of the University of St.Gallen (Declaration of the Senate of 12 November 2007), the Senate adopted the following Regulations on motion of the Senate Committee.

Chapter 1: General provisions

Art. 1: Open access

1 Open access to research results generated by the University of St.Gallen and to any concomitant publications shall be guaranteed and supported within the framework of the relevant legal provisions.

Art. 2: Terms

1 "Open access" shall denote the possibility of retrieving and utilizing research results and research information free of charge on a worldwide basis.

2 "Green Road" shall denote a form of publishing academic publications whereby research results are published through a publishing house whilst the copyrights for self-archiving remain with the researcher.

3 "Gold Road" shall denote a form of publishing academic publications whereby research results are published through a publishing house that does not demand any limitation of copyrights.

Explanations:

The establishment of open access to academic publications pursues the aim of increasing the degree of dissemination and the visibility of research results within the scientific community and, moreover, of substantially extending access to scientific findings. Also, open access is capable of contributing towards a more efficient publication of research publications, as well as of providing smaller disciplines, in particular, with simpler and more cost-effective access to the publication market.

With these Regulations, the University of St.Gallen makes clear once again that it guarantees open access to the extramural world. The Declaration of Open Access as a basic principle serves as an aid to the interpretation of these Regulations. In it, the University of St.Gallen makes plain that it has made the communication and dissemination of knowledge its aim and that the following explanations must be interpreted against the background of that selfsame aim.

The definitions of these terms create the basis for the interpretation of the following articles. Only a selection of individual terms is explained.

4 "Self-archiving" shall denote the right to store research results in the institutional archive of the University of St.Gallen and/or on the researcher's homepage permanently free of charge and to disseminate them in digital form worldwide on the Internet free of charge.

5 "Post-print version" shall denote the version of a publication of research results that a publishing house has conclusively accepted for publication, such version containing modifications arising from the peer-review process, from proofreading and from design adaptations.

6 "Pre-print version" shall denote the final version of a publication of research results that does not contain any or all of the modifications of a post-print version.

7 "Researchers of the University of St.Gallen" shall denote staff employed by the University of St.Gallen and its institutions who do research and publish their research results.

Chapter 2: Researchers' obligations

Art. 3: Provision of bibliographical data

1 The bibliographical data of any post-print or pre-print version drawn up by a researcher of the University of St.Gallen shall be published in the institutional archive of the University of St.Gallen (Alexandria).

2 In particular, this shall apply to bibliographical data concerning the title of the publication, its date of publication, its authors, its form of publication and its medium of publication (so-called mandatory fields).

A post-print version is a publication that has been accepted by a publishing house, i.e. it is the final publisher's version.

In contrast to the post-print version, the pre-print version is a preliminary version that contains none or only a part of the modifications of the publisher's version, which may concern design or contents.

Researchers are obliged to post their bibliographical details on Alexandria.

The relevant fields are defined as mandatory fields and must be filled in in all cases. Technical measures will ensure that publication will no longer be possible if these mandatory fields are not filled in.

Art. 4: Protection of exploitation rights

1 To the extent to which this is possible, researchers shall be obliged definitely and permanently to reserve in their contracts with publishing houses a non-exclusive exploitation right for the free digital publication of their research results in the institutional archive of the University of St.Gallen.

2 If an arrangement pursuant to Art. 4(1) is only feasible on condition that blocking periods are observed, such blocking periods shall be agreed with the publishing house.

3 The reservation of exploitation rights for the protection of open access shall be regularly and explicitly demanded prior to the execution of a contract.

4 If a publishing house grants options, then such copyrights shall be retained as will enable researchers to archive the post-print manuscript themselves.

Whenever possible, researchers should in future retain the right to selfarchiving. This, however, requires researchers, and possibly also institutes and departments, to take pains to ensure that the publishing houses contractually guarantee this right of self-archiving to them. It is unlikely that the initiative for this will be taken by the publishers themselves; rather, the University of St.Gallen assumes that this is an obligation incumbent on researchers.

If a publishing house imposes a blocking period, this blocking period must be adhered to and the article must be made available immediately on expiry of this period. If the archive software enables deadline management, the input should be made immediately after publication by the publishing house, and the text will be automatically released online on expiry of the blocking period.

Researchers are called upon to be mindful of open access as soon as they start negotiations with publishers in respect of copyrights.

This clause is in the author's interest, as well as in that of the publishing house, since otherwise there is a danger that the pre-print version is quoted more often than the post-print version.

Art. 5: Availability of full texts

1 Full texts shall be made available in the institutional archive when the post-print manuscript has been accepted for publication by the publishing house and when the publishing house permits the self-archiving of the post-print or the pre-print version.

2 In principle, full texts shall be made available at the same time as or at the earliest possible point in time after publication by the publishing house.

3 Publication of book contributions, commentaries and books shall not be subject to this obligation.

Art. 6: Publication in open access journals

The publication of research results in open access journals is welcome and shall be supported by the University of St.Gallen.

This article provides the principles of when and under what conditions a published article should be made available online.

It predominantly concerns contributions to journals and conferences that are being/were published by the publishing house. If copyright arrangements permit, these must always be made available online. This obligation applies to all researchers whenever a publisher permits self-archiving, regardless of whether the research was funded by the University of St.Gallen or not. In the case of Gold Road, researchers always have the rights required for self-archiving.

The point in time at which a text is made available online should be immediately after publication by the publisher or on expiry of the blocking period stipulated by the publisher. Any publication on Alexandria of texts as "forthcoming" is unwelcome.

Since book contributions, commentaries and books present a different situation right from the start, and since in this regard, publishing houses usually do not permit any possibility of self-archiving, the obligation to make such texts available online on Alexandria is not applicable.

The University of St.Gallen confirms once more that publication in open access journals is welcome but does not, however, make an explicit demand for such publication.

Chapter 3: Researchers' rights

Art. 7: Publication pursuant to the principle of open access

1 The University of St.Gallen shall support its researchers in their publications pursuant to the principle of open access by

a. providing its researchers with advisory support in negotiations with publishing houses concerning contracts for self-archiving, b. supporting publication in an open access journal by providing its researchers with advisory support, c. expressing due recognition during the evaluation of its researchers' research results published in open access journals.

Art. 8: Operation of an institutational archive

1 The University of St.Gallen shall provide an institutional archive and shall guarantee the worldwide availability and long-term archiving of any research results stored therein. It shall take measures to increase the publicity effect and accessibility of the institutional archive and its contents.

The third chapter describes the services that the University of St.Gallen provides for its researchers to be able to implement the principle of open access.

In order to be able to provide this support, the University of St.Gallen will set up a post which ensures the provision of the following services.

Advice regarding copyright contracts with publishing houses.

Support in the selection of OA journals: this includes information about existing OA journals but also information about addititional costs for researchers.

The individual departments of the University of St.Gallen, who are responsible for the evaluation of publications, are called upon to include open access journals in their evaluations in order to encourage doctoral students and the authors of habilitation theses to publish their work in such journals.

The University of St.Gallen commits itself to the operation of a research platform through which it ensures the worldwide availability of publications. In doing so, it primarily pursues the aim of promoting the dissemination of knowledge. Moreover, the University of St.Gallen commits itself to the long-term archiving of research results.

2 The University of St.Gallen shall provide its researchers with a contact point for questions and suggestions concerning the institutional archive and publication pursuant to the principle of open access. It shall continue to develop the institutional archive in order to adapt it to changing requirements and to satisfy researchers' needs.

Art. 9: Effective date

These Regulations shall take effect on 1 January 2009.

Moreover, the University of St.Gallen will provide a contact Ð the Alexandria Coordinator Ð to serve as an interface between researchers, the University, IT Services, the software supplier and the hoster. Besides tasks concerning contents, this coordinator has an administrative function and is responsible for the further development of the platform.

In addition, the University commits itself to the further development of the research platform in order to ensure that it satisfies researchers' needs.

The University of St.Gallen regards it as its third task in this context to market and increase the publicity effect of the contents of Alexandria. This is not about marketing the software, but about marketing the contents. Thus it is one objective that publications on Alexandria are found as easily as possible by search engines such as Google.

Added by: Ruedi Lindegger (Coordinator Research-Platform) alexandria AT unisg.ch on 03 Mar 2009