OA Policy FAQ
These frequently asked questions are for informational purposes only and are not part of the IU Indy Open Access policy. In the event of a discrepancy between the Policy and this list of FAQs, the OA Policy shall control.
The faculty of IU Indianapolis is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, the Faculty Council adopted an opt out open access policy.
Table of Contents
- How do faculty authors comply with this policy?
- What kinds of writings should be submitted?
- What version of the paper is submitted under this policy?
- Why are you asking for an accepted manuscript?
- My draft version includes comments and tracked changes, is that o.k.?
- Does the policy apply to works that were published prior to October 7, 2014?
- Does the policy apply to co-authored papers?
- My article is already available in an open access repository or journal, do I have to upload it to IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks?
- How do I opt out?
- My journal publisher has requested a signed waiver or exemption from the open access policy. What should I do?
- How does this open access policy benefit faculty authors?
- How does this policy benefit students, alumni and other communities?
- How would this policy benefit the university?
- Is the OA policy unique?
- Does this policy restrict my publishing options?
- Will my journal refuse to publish my article?
- Do I have to pay an “open access fee” in order to comply with the policy?
- Will I have to negotiate my copyright transfer with my journal publishers?
- What if I have already signed the copyright transfer agreement with the journal? Can I still participate in the Open Access Policy?
- Are the Trustees of Indiana University (IU Indianapolis and ScholarWorks) taking the rights to my writing?
- What does the policy mean by "exercise any and all rights under copyright"?
- What happens if I do not opt out, but assign exclusive rights to a publisher anyway, mistakenly signing a publisher’s agreement that conflicts with the policy?
- What if my article is archived in IU Indy ScholarWorks with my permission, but afterwards I decide that I no longer want it to be available to readers on the site?
- Will my compliance with this policy result in a burdensome administrative process?
- Will compliance with this policy hurt my reputation as a scholar?
- Will this policy have a negative impact on the quality of science and the record of scholarship?
- Would this policy hurt my scholarly society or journal?
- What if my co-authors’ institutions have different policies regarding author’s rights and self-archiving?
- But I already comply with the NIH Public Access policy, why does IU Indy need its own policy?
- Why do we need a policy if faculty can submit works to PubMed Central, arXiv, bioRxiv, and other sites? Don’t these services meet the need for open access archiving?
- Isn't the journal going to deposit the article in PubMed Central (PMC)?
- I already self-archive my work in an open access repository; will this policy detract from download counts from my preferred repository (e.g. SSRN)?
- Why did I receive an email notification for only some of my articles this year and not all of them?
- Who will review the implementation of the policy?
BASICS
BENEFITS
CONCERNS
BASICS
1. How do faculty authors comply with this policy?
Comply with the policy by completing a form to request that your work be a) shared with readers at IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks or b) to opt out of the policy.
2. What kinds of writings should be submitted?
The policy applies to “scholarly articles.” Using terms from the Budapest Open Access Initiative, scholarly articles are works 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.
This policy does not apply to books, popular articles, commissioned articles, fiction and poetry, encyclopedia entries, ephemeral writings, lecture notes, lecture videos, or other copyrighted works. Although the policy is not meant to address these kinds of works, authors are welcomed to include them in IU Indy ScholarWorks. Contact us to get started.
3. What version of the paper is submitted under this policy?
The author’s final version of the article; that is, the author’s manuscript with any changes made as a result of the peer review process, but prior to publisher’s copy-editing or formatting. Some publishers refer to this version as the “author’s accepted manuscript,” others call it the “post-print.” Typically, this is the author’s final word processing document with all post-peer review revisions adopted and with all tables and figures attached.
4. I would prefer to share the final published version. Why are you asking for an accepted manuscript?
If you own the rights to the final published version or if the publisher's copyright policies permit you to share the final published version in IU Indy ScholarWorks, please feel free to upload directly to the institutional repository: https://scholarworks.iupui.edu. However, if you received an OA policy notification from the library, it is most likely that the publisher does not permit authors to share the final published version on publicly accessible websites. If you would like us to double check the publisher's policies, please let us know.
5. My draft version includes comments and tracked changes, is that o.k.?
Yes. Your draft version will be added to a queue for uploading to IU Indy ScholarWorks. Prior to uploading the library will resolve or remove most tracked-changes. The library will also convert your files to a single PDF per article, embed metadata to specify the version, include a hyperlink to the publisher's version, and configure document properties to increase discoverability.
6. Does the policy apply to works that were published prior to October 7, 2014?
No. The policy does not apply to articles that were accepted for publication prior to October 7, 2014. Nor does the policy apply to any articles you write before joining or after leaving IUPUI. You may, however, while employed by IU Indianapolis, use IU Indy ScholarWorks (https://scholarworks.indianapolis.iu.edu) to share any work that you have authored and own the rights to or have permission from the rights holder to upload--including works that you authored prior to employment at IU. In other words, you're welcomed to share these works, but they are not included under the terms of the Open Access Policy.
7. Does the policy apply to co-authored papers?
Yes. Each joint author of an article holds copyright in the article and, individually, has the authority to grant IU 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. Although your co-authors’ permissions are not required to comply with this policy, if you are concerned that a co-author would not want to share the work in an open access repository, you may decide to ask your co-author prior to sending the library your accepted manuscript. Alternatively, you could choose to opt out of the policy for that article. Keep in mind, however, that the Open Access policy has made thousands of articles accessible from IU Indy ScholarWorks and has never received a complaint from a co-author.
8. My article is already available in an open access repository or journal, do I have to upload it to IU Indy ScholarWorks?
No. If a copyright-permitted, truly open access version has been shared online, send us a link to the item. Although some journals will make an article "free to read" for an unspecified time period, these articles are often not free to post in IU Indy ScholarWorks or to share broadly with readers indefinitely. The OA policy aims to make a stable, longterm, open access version available to readers everywhere. Nonetheless, the policy works in collaboration public access policies (PubMed Central), preprint servers (arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, etc.), and open access journals. If the library found a version that we can archive under the terms of the OA policy, you should not receive a notification. Congratulations on freely sharing your article with readers; your work is done! If you believe that we made a mistake, please let us know.
9. How do I opt out?
Authors may comply with the policy by completing a opt-out form, attaching a document and selecting an embargo or opt out option. An email notification and letter acknowledging your compliance with the policy will be generated.
10. My journal publisher has requested a signed waiver or exemption from the open access policy. What should I do?
Although such requests from publishers are rare, you can generate a signed exemption on this website at any time. The website provides two ways to generate an exemption: 1) complete the opt out form or 2) complete the “get a waiver” form. No publisher has required a waiver since 2017.
BENEFITS
11. How does this open access policy benefit faculty authors?
This is an author’s rights policy. By adopting this policy, faculty retain rights to their scholarly articles and proceedings. By including scholarly articles in an open access repository, authors increase their readership and citation rates. Articles in IU Indy ScholarWorks are indexed by search engines, receive a stable hyperlink, and are archived for safekeeping. This policy also helps authors comply with funding-related public access policies.
12. How does this policy benefit students, alumni and other communities?
With this policy, IU Indy shows its commitment to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. By providing free access to scholarship, the policy facilitates efforts to be “a leader in fostering collaborative relationships” and demonstrates that the campus values "innovative research and creativity, as well as its significant intellectual, economic, and cultural contributions to the city of Indianapolis, the state of Indiana, and beyond." (The Vision, Mission Statement https://indianapolis.iu.edu/about/vision-mission.html).
13. How would this policy benefit the university?
By providing access to articles by faculty members, this policy increases the impact of IU Indy research and creativity both on a local and global scale. Furthermore, by including works in the institutional repository, faculty members ensure that scholarship is preserved and accessible long after journals and publishers move, consolidate or cease publication.
CONCERNS
14. Is the OA policy unique?
No. Harvard University, MIT, University of California, University of Kansas, Duke University, Stanford School of Education and many others have similar policies. See a list of universities in the U.S. that have policies and a complete world-wide list of various kinds of open access policies.
Research funders are supporting such efforts as well. For instance, the National Institutes of Health now require posting of articles derived from research they fund in the open-access repository, PubMed Central; and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) as well as the Wellcome Trust require any scholarly articles on research they fund to be made openly accessible.
15. Does this policy restrict my publishing options?
No. Faculty authors are free to submit and to publish in any journal they choose. The opt out provision protects an author’s freedom of choice and ensures that the policy is compatible with any publishing opportunity.
16. Will my journal refuse to publish my article?
No. Journals gladly accept articles from faculty authors from universities with open access policies. If a journal refuses to publish an article under the policy, authors have the ability to opt out of the policy for that article.
17. Do I have to pay an “open access fee” in order to comply with the policy?
No. Most journal publishers (including Elsevier, SAGE, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley) permit authors to archive manuscripts in institutional repositories at no cost to the author. Over 80% of the world’s 1.1 million articles published in 2010 could be archived under current copyright law within one year of publication (Laakso, M. 2014, Scientometrics. https://hdl.handle.net/10138/157660). Ask a librarian before you pay or, if necessary, opt out.
18. Will I have to negotiate my copyright transfer with my journal publishers?
No. You do not have to negotiate you copyright transfer. During the submission process you may choose to embargo the article according to the journal’s copyright policy. You may also decide to opt out.
In some cases, however, you may decide that negotiating your copyright transfer is in your best interest. In these cases, the policy will support your efforts. The policy operates automatically to give IU Indy ScholarWorks a license in any scholarly articles faculty members complete after its adoption.
To thoroughly exercise this license, communicate this policy to your publisher and add to any copyright license (or assignment for scholarly articles) an addendum stating that the agreement is subject to this prior license. That way, you will avoid agreeing to give the publisher rights that are inconsistent with the prior license to IU Indy ScholarWorks that permits open-access distribution.
If you choose to negotiate your copyright with your publisher, here is a suggested statement to begin the discussion:
"Journal acknowledges that Author retains the right to provide a copy of the final manuscript, upon acceptance for Journal publication or thereafter, for compliance with the IU Indianapolis Open Access Policy and for public archiving in IU Indy ScholarWorks as soon as possible after publication by Journal."
Alternatively, the Big Ten Academic Alliance also provides a suitable form of addendum used in copyright negotiations at BTAA institutions. Whether you use the addendum or not, the license to IU Indianapolis will have force, unless you complete the opt out process.
SPARC also provides a widely used copyright addendum to support author's rights.
19. What if I have already signed the copyright transfer agreement with the journal? Can I still participate in the Open Access Policy?
Yes, even if you have signed the copyright transfer agreement, you can participate in the policy. For an overwhelming majority of articles, publisher policies permit authors to make at least one version of the work open access in a non-profit, institutional repository, like IU Indy ScholarWorks. If you received a notification from the library requesting your participation from the policy, that means that the journal does not permit authors to share the final published version with the publisher's typeset. If the publisher does permit authors to share the final, published version, the library will do so without sending you a notification.
Most journals, however, do permit authors to share the "accepted manuscript" (sometimes called a "post-print", a peer-reviewed, but pre-published draft with all tables and figures). In most cases this is the Word document or LaTeX file document you resubmitted to the journal after the last round of peer review.
If you send the library your "accepted manuscript," as a feature of how the policy is implemented, the library will check the publisher's copyright policies and archive it within the limits of copyright. In most cases, this means that the manuscript will be embargoed for up to twelve months.
As a matter of implementation, in the rare cases that a publisher forbids the sharing of any version, the library will mark your article as an "opt out" and archive the version you sent to us under an indefinite embargo
Nonetheless, the rights that you retained under the policy persist, even if you choose not to exercise them. For a more concise answer to the question, see the question below about conflicting policies.
20. Are the Trustees of Indiana University, IU Indianapolis and ScholarWorks taking the rights to my writing?
No. As the author, you own the copyright to your work until you transfer it to someone else. This policy grants specific nonexclusive permissions to IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks. You still retain ownership and complete control of the copyright in your writings, subject only to this prior permission. You can exercise your copyrights in any way you see fit, including transferring them to a publisher if you so desire. However, if you do so, IU Indianapolis would still retain its license and the right to distribute the article from its repository, ScholarWorks. Also, if your article arises, in whole or in part, from NIH-funded research and was accepted for publication after April 7, 2008, you must retain sufficient rights to comply with NIH’s Public Access Policy. Other funding-related policies have require similar rights. To search a database of funding-related policies, visit SHERPA/JULIET: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/juliet/
21. What does the policy mean by "exercise any and all rights under copyright"?
Copyright is not one right, but rather is best thought of as a bundle of rights granted to authors by the Copyright Act. Generally, these rights are reproduction, distribution, making derivative works, public performance, and public display. For IU Indianapolis to most effectively make scholarly articles freely and widely available, it may need to use many of these rights. For instance, simply taking a word processing file of an article, converting it to PDF and making it available for public reading or download could involve the distribution, derivative works, reproduction, and display rights. The most important points are that the policy does not prevent you from exercising any of these rights and IU Indianapolis's exercise of these rights is only for the purpose of making the articles freely and widely available.
22. What happens if I do not opt out, but assign exclusive rights to a publisher anyway, mistakenly signing a publisher’s agreement that conflicts with the policy?
IU Indy's license would still have force, because it would have been granted (through this policy) prior to the signing of the publisher contract. If the publisher expresses concern that cannot be remedied, you always have the opportunity to opt out of the license for that article.
23. What if my article is archived in IU Indy ScholarWorks with my permission, but afterwards I decide that I no longer want it to be available to readers on the site?
Under this policy, authors retain rights to their scholarly articles. An author may change a particular article’s archival status (open access, no access, or delayed access) at any time. Although requests are rare, authors may contact IU Indy ScholarWorks to ask for temporary or indefinite embargos on the full text access to an item. Contact us for help.
24. Will my compliance with this policy result in a burdensome administrative process?
The libraries have the expertise and the software to manage this process. To ease compliance faculty authors are encouraged to save copies of their final manuscripts--a word processing document, including tables and figures with all peer-reviewed changes adopted. Authors (or their delegates) may comply with the policy by completing a short web form. Alternatively, authors may send manuscripts by email to IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks at: digschol@iu.edu. (For each manuscript, please indicate your choice for online archiving: a) share, b) embargo or c) opt out.)
25. Will compliance with this policy hurt my reputation as a scholar?
No. By increasing your readership, this policy would be to your benefit. This policy does not reduce your opportunity to publish in any journal—including a subscription journal with a leading citation impact factor. Finally, you may decide to comply with the policy by opting out of the open access distribution.
26. Will this policy have a negative impact on the quality of science and the record of scholarship?
By increasing access and the speed of dissemination, policies such as this one reduce barriers to research and learning. Articles archived under this policy would not replace or supplant the version of record. Each manuscript will include a reference and, if possible, a hyperlink to the publisher’s website. With or without this policy, the academic community will need to work on the problem of version control in digital scholarship. There are technical and standard-based solutions that will address this problem. Nomenclature and modeling efforts have been begun by the National Information Standards Organization and the Version Identification Framework. These efforts will be closely monitored.
27. Would this policy hurt my scholarly society or journal?
Authors may opt out as needed. However, there is no empirical evidence that even when all articles are freely available, journals are canceled. The major societies in physics have not seen any impact on their publishing programs despite the fact that for more than 20 years, an open access repository (arXiv) has been making available nearly all of the High Energy Physics literature written during that period. If there is downward pressure on journal prices over time, publishers with the most inflated prices – which tend to be the commercial publishers – will feel the effects sooner. Journals will still be needed for their value-added services, such as peer review logistics, copy editing, type setting, and maintaining web sites.
Libraries, scholarly societies and journals face a publishing marketplace in transition; this transition will happen with or without open access policies.
28. What if my co-authors’ institutions have different policies regarding author’s rights and self-archiving?
It is very unlikely that this policy will create a true conflict with policies at other institutions. In fact, IU Indianapolis co-authors may find their work already included in the repositories of universities that have adopted a policy such as this one. See, for example, the following:
Hoggatt, J., Mohammad, K. S., Singh, P., Hoggatt, A. F., Chitteti, B. R., Speth, J. M., … Pelus, L. M. (2013). Differential stem- and progenitor-cell trafficking by prostaglandin E2. Nature, 495(7441), 365–369. Available from Harvard: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11876987.
Siddiki, S., Basurto, X., & Weible, C. M. (2012). Using the institutional grammar tool to understand regulatory compliance: The case of Colorado aquaculture. Regulation & Governance, 6(2), 167–188. Available from Duke: http://hdl.handle.net/10161/6738.
Citi, L., Djilas, M., Azevedo-Coste, C., Yoshida, K., Brown, E. N., & Barbieri, R. (2011). Point-process analysis of neural spiking activity of muscle spindles recorded from thin-film longitudinal intrafascicular electrodes. Conference Proceedings: Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2311–2314. Available from MIT: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70063.
If, for some reason, a co-author objects to providing access to the item in IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks, the IU Indy author may decide to “opt out” of the policy for that article.
29. But I already comply with the NIH Public Access policy, why does IU Indy need its own policy?
This policy would supplement existing public access policies—many articles are published without federal funding. By building a repository of IU Indy scholarship, we ensure that the university can maintain and preserve a record of the work completed by our faculty. By acquiring and preserving the author’s accepted manuscript, the Open Access Policy makes it easier to comply with the NIH Manuscript Submission process. One proposal for compliance with the coming U.S. agency (NSF, DOE, DOD, NEH, etc.) public access policies would leverage records in repositories like IU Indy ScholarWorks for compliance.
30. Why do we need a policy if faculty can submit works to PubMed Central, arXiv, bioRxiv, and other sites? Don’t these services meet the need for open access archiving?
Other repositories have limitations that exclude many of the scholarly articles and proceedings authored by faculty. PubMed Central, for example, is not open to submissions from any author, but is limited to journal articles reporting research funded by the NIH and to biomedical journals with pre-existing agreements with PubMed Central. As your home institution, IU Indianapolis has a vested interest in providing services that cannot be promised elsewhere--for example, long term preservation. Furthermore, this policy aims to increase access to scholarship authored by faculty members--as such, it maximizes authors' rights. By helping faculty to retain their rights, this policy facilitates sharing in any repository. If authors choose to share in another repository, IU Indy ScholarWorks will archive a version of the shared item for safe keeping.
31. Isn't the journal going to deposit the article in PubMed Central (PMC)?
If your article was funded by the NIH or another PMC participating funder, deposit in PubMed Central is required within 90 days of article acceptance. Some journals make these deposits on behalf of authors, but not all. Similarly, a publisher may miss the fact that an article needs to be deposited. If you received an email notification from the Open Access policy that indicates that the article may be out of compliance with funder policies, this means that we need your help to ensure compliance. In most cases, compliance with funder policies is the final responsibility of the principle investigator (PI), not journal, nor (in some cases) the corresponding author. If you send us the required version for compliance (an accepted manuscript with all tables, figures, and appendices), the library will make the initial deposits to the NIH on your behalf.
32. I already self-archive my work in an open access repository; will this policy detract from download counts from my preferred repository (e.g. SSRN)?
IU Indy ScholarWorks is a noncommercial repository supported by an academic library. Items are indexed for discoverability and included in long-term, digital preservation plans. If you prefer to protect your download counts at another repository, IU Indy ScholarWorks will archive a version of the shared item for safe keeping, but link out to a stable URL for downloads.
Please note that academic social networking sites (e.g., ResearchGate and Academia.edu) are not open access, academic research repositories.
33. Why did I receive an email notification for only some of my articles this year and not all of them?
There are several reasons that you may not receive a notification for some of your articles. If your article predates the policy or was authored prior to your affiliation with IU Indianapolis, you may still be able to share a version in IU Indy ScholarWorks, but you should not receive an email notification for these works. Furthermore, the library works to archive as many articles as possible without bothering authors; it's possible that your article has already been added to our queue for archiving in IU Indy ScholarWorks. It is also the case that the library contacts only one IU Indy author for a coauthored article. Therefore, it may be the case that one of your IU coauthors received the notification. Additionally, the library processes more than 4,000 articles per year for the OA policy; your notification may be "in the mail." Finally, it's possible that we missed your article--if you think so, please let us know.
34. Who will review the implementation of the policy?
The Office of Academic Affairs and University Library in consultation with the Indianapolis Faculty Council is responsible for reviewing the implementation of the policy. The policy will be reviewed after three years and as needed thereafter.
Note: Selected FAQs adapted from MIT Faculty Open Access Policy FAQ, with input from other members of the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions.
