Shorenstein Center Open Access Policy Affirmation
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is actively committed to the openness of information relevant to the public. This value is embodied in the traditions of a free press, protected under the First Amendment, and is consistent with the idea that quality information is vital to the functioning of democracy.
We therefore support and reaffirm Harvard’s Open Access Policy, enacted and implemented by all of the nine individual Harvard faculties all by unanimous or nearly unanimous faculty votes. This includes an affirmative vote by the Harvard Kennedy School, under which the Shorenstein Center operates.
Harvard has pioneered measures to promote open access and move toward a publishing system that is in keeping with the University’s goals of promoting the civic good. One of these measures is an open-access policy that has the effect of allowing open distribution of research articles.
The Shorenstein Center is committed to advancing these university-wide goals, and has a long-established tradition of offering all research materials produced by the Center and its Fellows free to the public on its website. Further, we will provide an electronic copy of the author’s final version of each scholarly article to the appropriate representative of the Provost’s Office, to be deposited into the open Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) repository.
Each member of the Shorenstein Center grants to the President and Fellows of Harvard College permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles. More specifically, each member grants to the President and Fellows of Harvard College a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit, and to authorize others to do the same. The policy applies to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored while the person is a member of the Shorenstein Center except for any articles completed before the adoption of this policy and any articles for which the member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy. The Provost or Provost’s designate will waive application of the license for a particular article or delay access for a specified period of time upon express direction by member.
December 2014
