Supporting Proposal for RGPEC Charge on Publications Repository
Submitted by Gayle Stein, RGPEC Co-chair
October 2011
Charge:
Examine the possibility of a Rutgers-specific, centrally-driven publication
repository for published papers and books. Provide data about similar services at
peer and aspirant universities.
Background:
Traditionally, faculty members give away rights to their research publications to
the journals in which they publish. This model is limiting in that research results
are not widely available to those without costly journal subscriptions. Because of
this, publications that are openly available are cited more frequently than those
that require a password. Funding agencies, such as the NIH, are requiring funded
researchers to put copies of their research in PubMed, a publically available
database.
Universities such as Harvard, Princeton, UC-Berkley, and Michigan have policies in
place that assist faculty in obtaining royalty-free, non-exclusive rights to their
work. Although this applies primarily to journal articles, electronic copies of
books are also included.
When faculty are given the option of putting copies of their research papers in
Rutgers’ centralized repository, RUCore, about one-tenth of one percent do so.
However, at universities where the libraries automatically archive papers, about 99%
of papers are collected.
By retaining royalty-free, non-exclusive rights to their research, faculty members
can create their own research repositories and departments can collect faculty
research in one place.
Many faculty are concerned about the public model, fearing that top-tier journals
will stop accepting their papers. Rutgers needs to look at how other universities
are addressing this and whether the faculty fears are warranted.