Revising an institutional open access policy to reserve the right to apply a Creative Commons License to dissertations and author accepted manuscript versions of peer-reviewed articles.

Abstract

In 2003, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) implemented the world’s first university-wide open access mandate. This policy, which required the deposit of higher degree research theses and author accepted manuscripts of peer reviewed articles, has played a significant role in the success of QUT’s open access repository, QUT ePrints. In 2018, QUT revised its open access policy in what is perhaps another world’s first. This strategic policy aims to increase the proportion of repository content made available under a Creative Commons license, facilitating greater use and impact of QUT’s research outputs. Previously, most author accepted manuscript files downloaded from QUT’s repository carried no license information. This revised policy asserts that author accepted manuscripts will be made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC) license, and higher degree by research theses (dissertations) will be made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial NoDerivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license. This action is supported by the University’s Intellectual Property Policy which reserves some rights with respect to works created by staff in the course of their employment. QUT’s revised policy aligns with trends in funding body requirements in regards to open access requirements, and represents a new approach to knowledge discovery and dissemination.