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Course & Subject Guides

Open Access @ Pitt: History

This guide contains resources for scholars who want to make their work open.

History of Open Access @ Pitt

2000

2001

  • The PhilSci-Archive, a preprint server for scholarly literature in the philosophy of science, is created
  • Proposal issued for an electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) pilot project at the University of Pittsburgh

2002

2003

  • Swanson School of Engineering requires all Engineering ETDs to be submitted electronically
  • University Council of Graduate Studies (UCGS) approves having all Pitt ETDs submitted electronically starting with December 2004 graduation
  • Minority Health and Health Equity Archive and the Aphasiology Archive are created

2007

2008

2009

  • Faculty Senate Plenary Session on Open Access held
  • Pitt's open institutional repository, D-Scholarship@Pitt, is created
  • Pitt Open Access Task Force formed
  • The ULS OA journal publishing increases to 8 titles

2010

2011

2012

  • ULS E-Journal Publishing acquires Scholarly Exchange OA journal titles

2013

  • ULS E-Journal Publishing titles increase to 35
  • Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing Lunch and Learn talk series for library colleagues created

2015

  • Copyright and Patent Policy Review committee appointed (see tab above)

In July 2010, then-Provost James Maher appointed an Open Access Task Force, which was charged

(to) carefully review the issues involved in open access publishing and to provide to his successor, Dr. Patricia E. Beeson, an assessment of available options for formulating policies and procedures on open access publishing for faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. 

Members of the task force were

  • Rush Miller (University Library System), Chair
  • Mike Madison (Barco School of Law)
  • Cynthia Miller (University of Pittsburgh Press)
  • Steve Reis (School of Medicine)
  • Adam Shear (Department of Religious Studies, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences)
  • Karen Shephard (Barco Law Library)

In 2011, the Task Force issued a report on Open Access and proposed a change to the University's copyright policy to support Open Access to scholarly articles by Pitt authors. This University Times article outlines the proposal. 

Included below are the key documents and proposals from the Task Force.

In 2015, a committee was tasked with leading a review and potential update of the University of Pittsburgh's Copyright and Patent policies, with the aim to: 

  • Lead Pitt to serve the public good and address societal needs with the greatest impact possible.
  • Advance the education of undergraduate and graduate students.
  • Encourage professional development of faculty, staff and students.
  • Facilitate cooperation with industrial and governmental institutions to transfer knowledge.
  • Support social, intellectual and economic development of the state, nation and world.

The ULS supported the inclusion of language about Open Access to research publications in the revised policy.