The Open Access Two-Step
When a journal accepts an article for publication, the publisher typically sends the corresponding author a Publication Agreement (or a Contributor Agreement Form) to sign and return to the publisher. This document usually requires the author to assign the copyright to the publisher, with the author retaining a number of specified rights. It is at this point that the faculty member should take the following steps, in light of the Stanford GSE Open Access Motion
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The Stanford GSE faculty member signs the Publication Agreement, while attaching to it a signed copy of the Stanford GSE Author Addendum which establishes that a prior, non-exclusive Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License for the paper has been granted to Stanford University, enabling it to post the final draft accepted by the journal.
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On receiving a copy of the Author Addendum signed by the publisher, or after the article has been published by the journal, the faculty member or a Stanford GSE staff member adds the following statement to the first page of the version submitted to the publisher, prior to posting it in the Stanford GSE Open Archive:
Doe, J. (YYYY, or in press). The title of the article. Name of the Journal, 23(3). http://www.url.of.the.journal.com/articleID
Stanford University makes this peer-reviewed final draft available under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). The published version is available from the publisher, subscribing libraries, and the author.
With this statement in place, the faculty member or the Stanford GSE staff member transforms the paper into a PDF and uploads it to the Stanford GSE Open Archive, along with bibliographic and indexing information.
NOTE: If the journal provides open access to its content, one can simply post the published version in the Open Archive when it is available, or include a link to the published version to accompany the final draft.
What If the Publisher Says No?
If the publisher should refuse to publish the article under the terms of the Author Addendum, then the author can obtain a waiver from the Dean’s office and proceed to have the article published. The author can still place the final draft in the Stanford GSE Open Archive designating it as closed, with a note that a copy of the published version of the article is available on request from the author.
What If a Reader Writes To Me for the Published Version?
If the publishers have long allowed authors to sent offprints to colleagues, and many now provide authors with the published PDF version for that purpose. Sage, for example, publisher of AERA journals, sends authors a PDF link that limits the number of times you can send someone an offprint to 25 times.
What If the Journal Provides Open Access to Its Content?
If the journal provides open access to its content (see there titles in education http://aera-cr.asu.edu/ejournals/), then when the article is published, the author can add a URL link leading to the published version to the paper’s entry in the Stanford GSE Open Archive.
What If the Author Wishes to Make Changes?
Faculty are able to update the version of the article that has been placed in the Stanford GSE Open Archive, to make corrections, for example, that bring it into line with the published version.
What About Open Access for Earlier Work?
For older articles, published prior to the Stanford GSE Open Access Motion, faculty are invited to consult the SHERPA/ROMEO database on the relevant publishers’ policies. In many cases, the publishers permit authors to post their final draft, following peer-review, in the Stanford GSE Open Archive, without having to seek further permission.
