A proposed change in University copyrights policy may have far-reaching effects on what rights faculty authors reserve for themselves when negotiating with publishers.

The UC Open Access proposal seeks to strengthen the author’s hand in withholding the transference of all copyright rights in a work to the publisher, currently a common practice. At the same time, it would create a noncommercial, nonexclusive right for the University to make available the scholarly material in a permanent, open access repository, most likely the UC’s eScholarship Repository.

The draft policy is on the Web at <http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/openaccesspolicy> and is accompanied by a useful FAQ document.

Under the proposed policy, comments on which must be relayed by May 20 to UC Provost Wyatt R. Hume, a faculty member may opt out of its provisions or specify a delay in the material appearing in the repository. Faculty may ask questions and send individual comments to Provost Hume, points out Associate Librarian Brad Eden.

“This is an important policy proposal,” says Eden, who has been working on an educational campaign with Roger Ingham, professor of speech and hearing sciences and chair of the Senate’s Scholarly Communications Committee. Eden (x4261) and Ingham (x2776) are available as resources should faculty wish to ask them questions about the suggested policy.

Senate Chair Joel Michaelsen (joel.

michaelsen@senate.ucsb.edu) has also said he would welcome seeing faculty comments, which could be incorporated into the UCSB response to the proposed policy.