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 2022, nearly 100 US universities, public and private, have adopted similar open access 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 as visible as possible.  

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.

 

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.

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.

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.