How to pass a student Open Access policy Juan Pablo Alperin (@juancommander) 

THE MOTIVATION 

faculty are bad at deposits and we can do better! 1 

nip it in the bud a policy brings OA to the attention of other students (most of which have never thought about access) 2 think of hundreds of future faculty that are accustomed to OA since their very first publication 

students need it! students need to be read and cited even more than established faculty and need to make impact before they graduate 3 

insert your favourite motivation here [ ] 

THE OPTIONS 

mandate v policy 1 + less pushback + bottom-up change + guaranteed compliance 

‘official’ v implicit 2 + long-term institutional support - requires legal - requires faculty + do not need anyone else - risk of dwindling interest 

all students v all graduate v only doctoral 3 + broad reaching - hard to engage + likely public - still hard to engage + most affected + care deeply about their publishing 

we opted for: policy- official - doctoral 

THE RESEARCH 

ask your friends 1 get a feel for whether or not there is interest 

ask student body representatives 2 great to have support (i.e., counsel/ guild) at least support for holding a vote 

talk to faculty/deans 3 we had: a dean of student affairs, an assistant dean of academic services, and a faculty member who supported the idea of a vote 

figure out process to ratify vote 3-b there are lots of questions to ask the administration: •what are the conditions to make the policy official? •how many can students make policy? •will the faculty ratify vote and make it official policy? learn from my mistake! 

THE PREAMBLE 

draft the proposed policy 1 you could take it to university’s general counsel for review (but this can also be done after) 

devil is in the details 1b “They grant to Stanford University a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to their scholarly articles” “The policy will apply to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored while a student of the Graduate School of Education, beginning with articles for which the publisher’s copyright agreement has yet to be signed.” “On a publisher’s refusal to agree to the terms of this policy (as presented to the publishers in the form of an addendum to the copyright agreement), the student is able to waive this policy by uploading the bibliographic details for the article” 

figure out where you would archive 2 university already has a repository? You might want to get one set up anyway! You don’t need a policy to archive! 

familiarize yourself with process 3 do you already know how where to check if journal policy allows archiving? do you know how to secure rights to do so? what about the timing of when you need to ask? people will ask! 

THE CAMPAIGN 

send out information 1 about open access and why it matters about the policy itself and about the implications of the policy see the emails I sent out: http:/ /dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.828273 

hold an info session 2 give out food! students love free food. I gave this presentation (plus Q&A) https:/ /speakerdeck.com/jalperin/stanford-gse-student-open-access-policy-information-session 

ask others to reach out 3 anybody who expresses interest, ask them to be advocates 

focus on voter turnout 4 make information easily available, but focus on getting people to vote 

THE VOTE!! 

the easiest part! we had a simple survey done with Qualtrics 

four parts to the vote - what year are you in? - proposed text of policy - two line summary of implications - simple “I vote FOR...” or “I vote AGAINST...” 

THE VICTORY 

explain how to comply 1 lay out the steps to follow see the email I sent out: http:/ /dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.828336 

keep the policy alive 2 ideas: - schedule information sessions regularly - get the policy on a course syllabus (on a gateway course) - add the policy to student handbook - add the policy to other materials and forms - find first years to take the torch once you leave 

Good Luck! feel free to get in touch! [email protected] @juancommander