As the intellectual heart of campus, UNCW Library is responsible for stewarding the institution’s participation in the global scholarly communication system. To do so effectively, UNCW Library must explicate clear statements about its philosophical approach to open access publishing (OA) that will guide the library’s future initiatives and investments. Academic library support for OA over the past several decades has largely focused on normalization and encouragement of the practice. Today, OA makes up more than 50% of U.S. and UNCW annual article production, predominately via excessive payments to large publishers that are increasingly unsustainable due to rising costs, fluctuations in research funding, flat library budgets, and inaccessibility to unfunded authors. To continue championing a future for OA that best serves the research enterprise, libraries must turn their attention from unconditional encouragement to the nurture and promotion of sustainable, ethical, and values-aligned OA pathways. 

This document introduces several OA value statements and commitments developed by the Open Knowledge Working Group and formally adopted by UNCW Library. Supplemental information includes the connection between OA commitments and UNCW Library’s Mission, Values, and Strategic Plan, and details about campus trends in article publishing. Ultimately, UNCW Library commits to furthering open publishing on campus through means that are ethical and sustainable, both in terms of library resources, and in terms of the global trajectory of our shared scholarly communication system.

Read the document:

UNCW Library Commitment to Supporting Sustainable Open Access Scholarship (PDF)