Frequently Asked Questions About the GW Open Access Policy

The GW Open Access Policy supports the broad dissemination of GW’s research and scholarship to bring increased recognition to authors and to the institution. The publications are freely available to anyone, anywhere.

Openly sharing your works online brings more visibility to your research. Studies have shown that publications that are freely available are cited more often and have greater impact than those that are not freely available. Depositing your works in GW's institutional repository ensures they are centrally available, backed up, preserved, and searchable via search engines such as Google.

Many top-tier US research universities have adopted open access policies. Universities that have adopted open access policies include MIT, Duke, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, University of Virginia, Rice University, and Emory. Research funders are supporting such efforts as well. For instance, the National Institutes of Health’s Public Access Policy requires that authors post articles derived from NIH funded research in the National Library of Medicine’s free full-text archive, PubMed Central (PMC). A current list of institutions with open access policies is maintained at The Registry of Open Access Repositories Mandatory Archiving Policies (ROARMAP).

The policy will increase the impact of GW research by making it more widely available. Studies show a large citation advantage for open access articles, but restrictive publisher business models limit wide sharing through onerous terms in contracts with university libraries and individual authors. Some publishers prohibit authors from posting their work openly on the web.

The policy will guarantee the right for GW’s research and scholarly works to be preserved in its institutional repository, GW ScholarSpace. GW ScholarSpace will ensure the accessibility, long-term preservation, and file integrity of each deposited work. Institutional Repositories are widely used by many research institutions to archive local research output and have the advantage of helping to preserve content in the events such as the dissolution of commercial publishers.   

The GW Open Access Policy applies to scholarly articles, but faculty members are encouraged to also make other scholarly works available for open dissemination. An advantage of having a book in the open access repository is wider availability and visibility.  Books placed in an institutional repository are able to circulate even after going out of print. Authors should not include material in the repository if:

• the agreement with the publisher does not permit open access archiving or
• copyrighted materials included in the book preclude it from being made available under open access

The same is true of other unique forms of publication (e.g. white papers, technical reports, etc.).

At this time, GW ScholarSpace primarily supports document files like PDF.

Authors should defer to publisher guidelines regarding what version of the publication is appropriate for inclusion in a repository. Some publishers may prefer that the copyedited, formatted version be submitted while others will only allow the final peer-reviewed manuscript prior to copy editing and formatting to be made available under open access. The library can work with you to determine the correct version to include in the repository. Please reach out to the Scholarly Communications Team for support. For more information about publishers’ policies, visit Jisc Open Policy Finder.

The GW Open Access Policy only applies to faculty members and librarians at GW; however, if faculty or student organizations would like to promote and preserve exceptional student works, journals, etc. please contact the Scholarly Communications Team to explore options.   

The policy automatically gives GW a perpetual royalty-free non-exclusive license to distribute the works, unless an opt-out waiver has been signed. When signing publishing agreements for the publication of an article, you should let the publisher know that the agreement is subject to a prior license agreement with George Washington University. You may also submit The Addendum to Publication Agreement with your publication agreement to the publisher.

You have multiple options in this situation: 

• Let your publisher know that your work is subject to an institutional open access policy. Attempt to negotiate your rights as an author to both publish your article and place a copy in the institutional repository, GW ScholarSpace
• Find an alternative publisher that will accept the license. A list of journals and their open access policies can be found at JISC Open Policy Finder;
• Consult with the Library about taking steps to address the publisher's specific concerns;
• Obtain a waiver for the work under the policy (see "Opting Out").

The Library can place an embargo on the publication when it is submitted to the repository as required by the publisher. During the length of time required by the embargo, the full text for the publication will not be made available through GW ScholarSpace until the embargo has expired. When submitting your work through the GW ScholarSpace Deposit Form, please indicate the embargo period in the 'Embargo' field.

Yes. Each co-author of an article holds copyright in the article and, individually, can grant GW a non-exclusive license.

No. Publications or publishing agreements that were signed prior to the adoption of this policy do not need to comply with the policy. Authors may, however, include their past publications in the repository if the publishers do not forbid their doing so.

Each library at GW maintains a repository for the programs it supports. Members of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Science, GW School of Business, Graduate School of Education and Human Development, Elliott School of International Affairs, and the College of Professional Studies may submit their your work through the GW ScholarSpace Deposit Form. The Library will upload the information on your behalf and send you the corresponding URL.

If you are affiliated with the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the School of Nursing, the Milken Institute School of Public Health, or the GW Biostatistics Center, you may submit your articles to Himmelfarb Library's Health Sciences Research Commons.

If you are affiliated with the George Washington University Law School you may submit materials to their Scholarly Commons Repository.

The publications also need to go into the institutional repository where they will be backed up and preserved for the long term, but there is no need for you to submit the article more than once. The library will gladly work with you on getting the publications uploaded through an automatic process. Please contact the Scholarly Communications Team if you want to copy publications from an existing GW database into GW ScholarSpace.

The overall objective of the GW Open Access Policy is to make your research more visible and to acknowledge the work you have done at a broader level than can be achieved with costly subscription-only or for-purchase publishing. We recognize, however, that there may sometimes be other considerations where those interests would not necessarily be advanced through this policy. Sometimes the inclusion of copyrighted materials in the work will preclude its open dissemination, or the agreement with the publisher may preclude open dissemination. Recognizing that there are legitimate exceptions, an opt-out waiver has been included as part of the policy.

The Provost’s designate, the Dean of Libraries and Academic Innovation, will waive application of the policy for a particular article upon written notification by the author, who informs GW of the reason. You can request a waiver by submitting an opt-out waiver request.

Each co-author in a jointly written article owns the copyright. Under U.S. copyright law, any co-author has the right to grant a nonexclusive permission to others. It would be up to the co-author to decide whether to opt out of the policy for a given article to accommodate a co-author.

GW’s license is still valid since it was in effect prior to your signing the publisher's agreement. If the publisher refuses to allow the article to be published in light of GW’s policy, you can discuss the matter with GW Libraries' Scholarly Communications Team, talk with GW’s Office of General Counsel, or request an opt-out waiver for the publication. We recognize that you have the right to publish with the journals you regard as most advantageous to your field of study. There is no intention for the Open Access Policy to interfere with your ability to publish your scholarly work.

Even with a waiver, the publisher’s agreement may provide, or the author may be able to negotiate, sufficient rights to allow copies of the article to be made publicly available in the GW repository. The publisher may ask that certain conditions be met, some of which the repository can accommodate (for example, an embargo period during which the article will not be made publicly available). Jisc Open Policy Finder is a useful resource for identifying the publisher’s policy for a specific journal. 

No. You retain the copyright for your publications. If you assign copyright to a publisher, GW’s policy is still enforceable since it was already in effect prior to your signing over your copyright.

The GW Libraries' Scholarly Communications Committee is happy to consult with you about copyright issues, but GW’s Office of the General Counsel will provide any legal guidance you may need.

We can work with you to make sure your submission complies with all permissions you have obtained.

GW’s institutional repositories are managed by each GW Libraries, with a commitment to maintain the repository's availability, longevity, and functionality, to the extent technologically feasible. The publications under this policy will reside in the repository long-term, where they will be backed up and preserved. Contents of the repository are made available to Internet search engines, including Google.

This policy does not prevent you, as the copyright holder, from doing what you wish with the publication, including selling it. However, under GW’s license to the work, it will continue to be available as an open access publication, free to those who access it from GW's institutional repository, unless you obtain an opt-out waiver.

Others can use the published work within the bounds of the copyright. You must receive attribution for any citations or use of the work and anyone using it must have permission to do so within the copyright guidelines assigned to the work. Failure to do so is a violation of your copyright and is subject to legal action.

Yes, the license allows GW to enable both commercial and nonprofit entities to use the articles to provide search or other services. This is true even if the services generate advertising revenues or the company charges for the services.GW could also authorize use of the articles in a commercial service that provides information extracted from the articles, such as bibliographic data or citation lists. Any arrangements would be consistent with the goals of open access and ensuring wide visibility and availability of scholarly articles.

Publications go through the normal peer review process prior to their being deposited in the institutional repository. Just because the work is available as an open access publication does not mean it has not gone through peer review. The publisher's standard peer-review mechanism is used and the final post-peer reviewed copy of the manuscript is the version deposited in the institutional repository, unless the publisher prefers that you deposit the copyedited, formatted version as published.

Open access as discussed in relation to this policy refers to free availability of journal articles on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful, non-commercial purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.

Experience has shown that “opt in” systems have little effect on authors’ behavior. For instance, before Congress made it a requirement, participation in the NIH Public Access Policy was optional. During that period, there was a much lower level of compliance. Experience in many areas has shown that opt-out systems achieve much higher degrees of participation than opt-in systems. Individual faculty benefit from a blanket policy because it makes it possible for GW to simplify procedures and broaden access.

GW already has the technical infrastructure in place to store the articles, in the form of the open access repository, GW ScholarSpace. In addition, the GW Libraries have experience supporting access to faculty research such as technical reports and working papers.

The NIH Public Access Policy applies only to NIH funded research. It requires authors to deposit the final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts in the National Library of Medicine’s free, full-text archive PubMed Central. The policy makes taxpayer funded research available to taxpayers.

A particular article could be subject to both this policy and the NIH Public Access Policy, if it is peer-reviewed and arose, in whole or in part, from NIH-funded research. If an NIH-funded article is covered by this public access policy, the author could use the GW addendum to publication agreements to cover NIH requirements and accommodate the GW policy. Even if the author decides to opt out of the GW policy for an article, the author must reserve rights sufficient to comply with the NIH policy when entering into a publication agreement for the article. Information for GW authors on complying with the NIH Public Access Policy is available in the NIH Public Access Policy Compliance Research Guide.

Different disciplines have very different “half lives” for journal articles, making it very difficult to include a particular time period in an overall policy. Instead, the embargo and opt-out options exist for authors whose publishers require a delay before posting