Open Access at KU

Open Access refers to scholarly literature that is digital, online, free of charge and free of most copyright and reuse restrictions. For an introduction to Open Access, please see:

Open Access by Peter Suber

Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)

KU Faculty's Open Access Policy

The first formal step taken by KU faculty toward an Open Access Policy was the Faculty Senate’s 2005 Resolution on Access to Scholarly Information (pdf), which encouraged deposit of scholarly works into KU ScholarWorks and signaled faculty’s interest in and support for open access. In 2009 and 2010, Faculty Senate passed the KU Faculty Open Access Policy, asserting faculty rights to make their published scholarly articles openly accessible. KU is the first public institution to adopt an open access policy, after examples set by Harvard, MIT, and Stanford’s School of Education. As of 2024, faculty at over 100 US universities, public and private, have adopted similar policies, often with the support of the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI), which KU Libraries co-founded in 2011. As the Provost’ Designate under the policy, the Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright supports faculty in a variety of ways to make their scholarly work open and visible.  

To best leverage the Open Access Policy, faculty should affirm the license. Occasionally a publisher may require a faculty member to opt out of the Policy for a specific article, in which case the author may submit an Open Access Policy Waiver Form.

If you consider yourself an OA advocate and would like to be informed about relevant news and events, contact lib_oscc@ku.edu to let us know you'd like to be added to the KU OA Friends list.

Contact Us

Josh Bolick

Head

Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright, KU Libraries


jbolick@ku.edu

785-864-1828

Marianne Reed

Digital Publishing & Repository Manager

Digital Initiatives, KU Libraries


mreed@ku.edu

785-864-8913

 

Open Access Impact at KU

2009
The year that the KU Open Access Policy was approved by the Faculty Senate
~29,000
Items in KU ScholarWorks
20M
Times that items in KU ScholarWorks have been downloaded
701
Average downloads per item in KUSW

Open Access News

KU Libraries to celebrate Open Access Week with virtual office hours

The University of Kansas Libraries will celebrate the 13th annual International Open Access Week October 19-23 by offering virtual office hours for KU faculty, staff and students to learn about the benefits of open scholarship and practices. ...

KU Libraries celebrates 10th International Open Access Week

The Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright is hosting two events for our 10th year of celebrating International Open Access Week. On October 24th we will offer a grad-student lunch and dialogue, and on the evening of October 29th, a screening of a film at Liberty Hall. ...

Developments in Scholarly Publishing worth tracking

There have been several important announcements around open access and scholarly publishing that are promising sources of deliberation among those recognizing the unsustainability in the current publishing system. Among them are included, Plan S, from the cOAlition S, the University of California’s ending negotiations with Elsevier over content licenses, and...

SPARC Scholarly Publishing Landscape Analysis

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has released a "Landscape Analysis" by publishing industry analyst Claudio Aspesi, examining recent shifts in scholarly publishing, particularly away from content provision, towards data analytics. ...