Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:50:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Subbiah Arunachalam
Passed by Unanimous of the Faculty, March 18, 2009
The Faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is committed to
disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as
possible. In keeping with that commitment, the Faculty adopts the
following policy: Each Faculty member grants to the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology nonexclusive permission to make available his or
her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles for
the purpose of open dissemination. In legal terms, each Faculty member
grants to MIT a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, 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 will
apply to all scholarly articles written while the person is a member of
the Faculty except for any articles completed before the adoption of this
policy and any articles for which the Faculty 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
policy for a particular article upon written notification by the author,
who informs MIT of the reason.
To assist the Institute in distributing the scholarly articles, as of the
date of publication, each Faculty member will make available an electronic
copy of his or her final version of the article at no charge to a
designated representative of the Provost's Office in appropriate formats
(such as PDF) specified by the Provost's Office.
The Provost's Office will make the scholarly article available to the
public in an open- access repository. The Office of the Provost, in
consultation with the Faculty Committee on the Library System will be
responsible for interpreting this policy, resolving disputes concerning
its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the
Faculty.
The policy is to take effect immediately; it will be reviewed after five
years by the Faculty Policy Committee, with a report presented to the
Faculty.
The Faculty calls upon the Faculty Committee on the Library System to
develop and monitor a plan for a service or mechanism that would render
compliance with the policy as convenient for the faculty as possible.
