There are three UC systemwide open access (OA) policies. The Academic Senate Policy, adopted July 23, 2013, grants Senate faculty members the right to make their published articles' final post-peer review manuscripts available to the public in an open access repository. It does this by granting a license to the University (regardless of any agreements authors may make with publishers). The policy does not transfer copyright to UC or allow UC to sell the articles. Also, the policy does not prevent faculty from transferring copyright to publishers. The Presidential Open Access Policy, adopted October 23, 2015, extended all rights covered under the Academic Senate policy to non-Senate employees and students. In accordance with UC's Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations, UC campuses also provide open access to theses and dissertations by depositing them in eScholarship (UC’s open access repository and publishing platform) on behalf of their students.
On the Participate in UC Open Access Policies website, you can view OA policy texts and histories, publisher information, an FAQ, deposit information, and instructions for generating a waiver or an embargo. Under the Policies, UC authors retain the right to their work.
The UC Publication Management System (UCPMS) is an easy way to comply with the Academic Senate Open Access Policy. Publications uploaded to the UCPMS appear in eScholarship, UC’s institutional repository.
Plans are in process to roll out the UCPMS to employees covered under the Presidential Open Access Policy. Until then, non-Senate employees can deposit their manuscripts directly into eScholarship. Participating in the UC open access policies is a no-cost way to make articles and electronic theses, and dissertations freely available to the public. Each publication receives a permalink (unique identifier), proper citation information, and usage statistics.
