October 21, 2024
UW Libraries Endorses The Right to Deposit
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LEARN MORE, GET INVOLVED Open Access Week with UW LibrariesThis year’s theme is Community over Commercialization and is an opportunity to discuss approaches to open scholarship that best serve the interests of the public and the academic community. Join us for a week of free events and workshops: “Stop Generating”: Generative AI in the Contexts of Indigenous Studies” Group Viewing Situating Data: Strategies for Curation and Contextualization The Challenges of Digital Publishing OpEd Writing group Workshop: How to Write and Submit OpEds for Publication |
UW Libraries join a growing number of institutions in endorsing the wider use of the Federal Purpose License, so that federally funded research can be used by more people, more quickly, than ever before. Simply put, the License allows the federal government to use–and allow others to use–the research publications that it funds. In its words:
“The Federal awarding agency reserves a royalty-free, nonexclusive and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use the work for Federal purposes, and to authorize others to do so.”
In 2023, members of the UW community received approximately $1.52 billion in federal funding for research. Many grants require resulting research articles to be publicly available within a period of time. Thanks to new guidance in the Nelson memo, more articles and data resulting from federal funding will need to be publicly available without delay. This furthers authors’ and institutions’ shared values of equity and public benefit.
But the procedures for sharing may not align. Authors must navigate funder requirements, publishing agreements, and institutional Open Access policies, which can conflict with each other. Publishing contracts, in particular, can make it difficult to satisfy the public access requirements of funders and institutions.
“UW research attains its greatest impact on our most pressing global challenges when we advocate for open, public and emerging forms of scholarship.”
The Federal Purpose License makes it easier to share research results because it overrides all subsequent agreements and requirements about rights. It supports access to and re-use of research works; fosters uniformity across federal agencies; reduces the risks of non-compliance for grant recipients; and maximizes the return-on-investment for taxpayers and the public-at-large.
The Federal Purpose License existed for a long time without much attention. With the Nelson Memo’s emphasis on greater public access to federally funded research, librarians are recognizing its promise.
By supporting use of the Federal purpose license to implement the Nelson memo, UW Libraries further a core belief of its strategic plan: “UW research attains its greatest impact on our most pressing global challenges when we advocate for open, public and emerging forms of scholarship.”
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