1. Purpose
1.1. This Policy identifies the archiving and dissemination of scholarly articles authored by University Authors to promote the creation and transmission of knowledge, with proper consideration given to robust public access to that knowledge and to the need for an educated citizenry.
1.2. This Policy is aspirational and intended to encourage open access to scholarly work. While the University expects authors to participate, no University sanctions will result from failure to comply.
2. Definitions
For purposes of this Policy:
2.1. “University Authors” shall mean the University of Lethbridge faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows in an author or co-author capacity.
3. Policy
3.1. University Authors are encouraged to provide the University of Lethbridge Library an electronic copy of the finalized text of all scholarly articles. The electronic copy shall be submitted to OPUS upon publication.
3.2. University Authors grant the University of Lethbridge the non-exclusive permission to permanently archive, preserve, reproduce and openly disseminate, in any medium1, all scholarly articles authored by the University Author, provided that the articles are properly attributed to the University Authors; this permission is granted for the sole objective of archiving the articles for non-commercial purposes. Permission is granted on the understanding that University Authors will not be charged any use or service fees for activities associated with this Policy.
3.3. The University of Lethbridge Library will make the scholarly article available to the public, taking into consideration requirements for access delay.
3.4. The Provost & Vice-President (Academic), in consultation with the University Librarian, will be responsible for this Policy.
4. Exclusions
4.1. Subject to applicable Legislation, this Policy will not be interpreted or applied so as to limit or amend the provisions contained in any Handbook, collective agreement or employment manual entered into between the Board of Governors of the University of Lethbridge and its employees.
4.2. This Policy does not cover any articles published before the adoption of this policy, and any articles for which the University Author entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this Policy.
4.3. The application of this Policy to any particular article will be waived automatically (via web request form) upon request by a University Author.
5. Policy Review
5.1. This Policy will be reviewed after three years and annually a report shall be presented to General Faculties Council through the GFC Library Committee.
The granted permission includes the ability to archive and openly disseminate articles “in any medium” only to ensure the content of the University of Lethbridge’s research repository can be migrated to other archiving and dissemination media and platforms as the need arises..