Open Access Agreements and Licenses Task Force

A multi-stakeholder Task Force initiated and supported by COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories), with members representing a number of different types of organizations (libraries, licensing agencies, library associations, and open access groups) with a common interest in promoting sustainable and effective practices for open access, commenced its work in May 2012. The purpose of the Task Force is to monitor, evaluate and promote the implementation of effective open access agreements and licenses in order to improve access to research papers globally.

These agreements currently take the form of:

• Licensing language that allows authors and/or institutions to retain rights to deposit copies of publications (“self-archive”) in open access repositories (disciplinary and/or institutional).
• Publishers terms for access and reuse (i.e. to enable text mining, hyperlinking, copying, distribution, derived works etc.).
• Memberships with open access publishers.
• Agreements with publishers for direct deposit into repositories (disciplinary and/or institutional).
• Agreements with subscription-based publishers to publish with open access option (Hybrid Open Access Journals).
• Other types of cooperative agreements for open access (i.e. SCOAP3). 

Activities

• Document the variety of institutional and consortia OA agreements with publishers.
• Assess the value of these various agreements and make recommendations regarding their efficacy. (For example, agreements will be evaluated based on their impact on cost and risks, with the aim of maximizing the benefits of these agreements for all parties). 
• Develop strategies that will promote the use of recommended agreements and clauses.
• Gather evidence that would support the acceptance of OA agreements by publishers.
• Identify tools, workflows and procedures for the implementation of clauses or OA agreements.
• Summarize recommendations and make available to the public.
• If appropriate, the Task Force will work with others (e.g. publishers) in order to meet our goals.

More information is here: Open Access Agreements and Licenses Task Force.