HKBU Open Access Policy

On 5 December 2016, the Senate adopted the following policy as recommended by the Research Committee:

The Policy

Hong Kong Baptist University is committed to making the results of its research and scholarship as widely available as possible. In keeping with this commitment, the University adopts the following policy:

Each faculty member grants to Hong Kong Baptist University nonexclusive permission to make his or her scholarly articles available at, inter alia, the University's institutional repository and to exercise the copyright in those articles for the purpose of, inter alia, open dissemination. Each faculty member further grants to the University a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, provided that these articles are not sold for a profit and to authorize others to do the same.
The policy applies to all scholarly articles written while the person is employed by the University, except for any articles completed before the adoption of this policy. In this context, “scholarly articles” are defined as articles prepared for peer review.

Guidelines

On or before the date of publication, each faculty member will provide an electronic copy of the accepted manuscript of each article to the University Library via the Research Project System.

After checking the relevant publisher's open access policies, the Library will make it available to the public via the University’s institutional repository where permitted. Most major publishers do allow articles to be made available for open access subject to certain conditions. The Library will be responsible for checking and ensuring compliance with publisher policies.

Upon the express direction of the faculty member, the University Librarian may waive the application of the policy for a particular article or delay access to the article (i.e. place it under embargo) for a specified period of time.

This Policy shall be incorporated in all employment contracts for staff joining the University.*

The University Librarian will be responsible for interpreting this policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the Research Committee from time to time. The impact of the policy will be continuously monitored, and will be reviewed every three years, or when necessary, with a report presented to the Research Committee.

* Effective March 2017