How do the Open Access policy and my publisher agreement interact?
If I’ve signed a publisher/author agreement to publish my article/book chapter/conference paper, can I still use the Open Access policy?
Answer
The UMass Amherst Open Access policy establishes the right for the University to share open access any faculty authored or co-authored manuscript published since July 1, 2016. "More specifically, each Faculty member grants to the University a nonexclusive, irrevocable, 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." (UMass Amherst Faculty Senate Open Access policy)
This policy precedes any agreement an author may enter with a publisher, and the University's rights cannot be diminished or taken away. Though the University's rights are irrevocable, the policy does not prevent the author from sharing their rights with other entities (nonexclusive), such as a publisher or federal funding agency.
Some publishers attempt to leverage institutional open access or funder-level public access policies into payments to the publisher, by requiring the author to warrant that no prior license exists; if an author notes that their work is subject to a U.S. government Federal Purpose License for public access or institutional open access policy, the publisher demands an open access payment. Failing to disclose that a prior license exists, however, puts an author at risk of a breach-of-contract claim. While historically publishers have not filed breach-of-contract claims against authors based on prior licenses, this poses an unpleasant catch-22 for an author who cannot or does not wish to pay the publisher's requested fee."
If you wish to remedy a potential publishing contract conflict, you have several options:
- Try to persuade your publisher to recognize UMass Amherst's non-exclusive rights;
- Choose another publisher (see the Open Policy Finder for publisher policies); or
- Request a waiver to the Open Access Policy.
The Libraries offer faculty the opportunity to consult with the Copyright and Information Policy program (copyright@umass.edu), if an author wishes to review a publishing contract.