Open Access: OA at VT

Open Access Week is an internationally observed event in late October that Virginia Tech has marked since 2012 with a keynote address, panels, and workshops. 

Workshops through NLI on open access-related topics occur year-round (look under "Research and Discovery").

In addition to our Open Access Fund, the University Libraries provide direct financial support for open access content and infrastructure.

Virginia Tech does not have a comprehensive open access policy. However, there is currently a working group developing a faculty open access policy (see the website to keep up with developments).  Presentations can be given on request by any department, college, or research group, and NLI sessions are being offered to inform faculty and receive feedback- go to the NLI listing and look for "Sharing Our Research."

There are two open access policies within the university, affecting library faculty and graduate students:

• The Library Faculty Association approved an open access policy on August 1, 2013, requiring deposit of peer-reviewed articles in VTechWorks.
• The Graduate School policy on electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) requires open access (with an embargo option).  In 1997, Virginia Tech became the first university in the world to require ETDs.

More than 50 U.S. universities have adopted open access policies by faculty vote, including the University of California system, Duke, Emory, Kansas, Harvard, MIT, Georgia Tech, and many others, including Virginia Tech's SCHEV-approved peers Cornell, Rutgers, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Most recently, Indiana (2017), Florida State (2017), Johns Hopkins (2018), and Penn State (2019) have adopted faculty open access policies.

Virginia Tech's most relevant policies in this regard are the Policy on Intellectual Property (Policy 13000) and Ownership and Control of Research Results (Policy 13015). 

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