Harvard will publish faculty research in database

Christine Vines Staff Writer

The Faculty of Arts and Science at Harvard University voted for a change in publication policy on Tuesday, Feb. 12 that will allow the university to post finished academic papers for free online. While many other institutions have similar online databases, Harvard’s will be unique because academic papers and scholarly work will be automatically uploaded unless scholars specifically decide to opt out of the program.

The unanimous vote gives Harvard a “worldwide license to make each faculty member’s scholarly articles available and to exercise the copyright in the articles, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit,” according to a statement released after the vote. That license will be used to post the articles free online, where they can be crawled and accessed through search engines such as Google Scholar.

Although this option is not binding for Harvard researchers, many analysts of higher education view this as a move toward greater transparency. “Communication is a part and parcel of the research process,” said Vassar Science Librarian Flora Grabowska. “What’s the point if you’re not going to tell the rest of the world?”

Publishing scholarly works has become an increasing difficult process, as the price of academic journals has skyrocketed in the past decade, causing many libraries to cancel subscriptions. For example, Vassar spends about $1.6 million each year on its subscriptions to scholarly journals.

Open-access to articles has therefore become a rising trend. “This is a large and very important step for scholars throughout the country,” said Harvard Professor of Computer Science Stuart M. Shieber, who sponsored the bill before the faculty governance group, to the Harvard University Gazette, a weekly published by Harvard’s Office of News and Public Affairs.

“It should be a very powerful message to the academic community that we want and should have more control over how our work is used and disseminated,” said Shieber.

Director of the Vassar Libraries Sabrina Paper agreed. “I think the move at Harvard has done and will do a lot to validate freely accessible works,” she said. “This is one of the things to be applauded.”

Some involved in the publishing process of academic journals oppose this move to digital distribution of research, insisting that for-profit collections promote peer review and that the exclusive nature ensures higher quality. Harvard faculty, however, see the move as a way to challenge the closed-access model of their work and allowing the public to see their ongoing research.

In an article published in the student newspaper The Harvard Crimson on Tuesday, Feb. 12, Director of the University Library Robert Darnton vigorously supported the move, saying it will make the academic world more open to everyone.

“Harvard’s motion represents only one step toward this goal,” he wrote, “But it shows how new technology can make it possible to realize an old ideal, a republic of letters in which citizenship extends to everyone.”

Grabowska was excited by Harvard’s decision. “I am delighted, like a dog wagging two tails,” she said. “It’s much, much better than the opt-in system, because people will never think to opt-in, but there’s still freedom for the Harvard faculty to opt-out” of the database.

This fall, the Vassar College Library launched a listing of over 700 citations to faculty works and activities. Vassar does not currently have a repository like Harvard’s, though the College is discussing how one might operate here.

“The Faculty Scholarship Database is just a listing of faculty research and, unless it is deposited in another online location and linked, there is not currently access to the actual research,” said Pape.

Such a database could potentially extend beyond just faculty work. “Students work very hard on their theses, but there is no one place to find them,” said Grabowska. “My dream would be to have a place for that as well, as long as students could always opt-out if they didn’t wish to be a part,” she said.