ACRL Policy Statement on Open Access to Scholarship by Academic Librarians
Scholarship by academic librarians advances the fields of Library and Information Science, influences practices of aligned professions, and informs effective advocacy. In support of broad and timely dissemination of Library and Information Science scholarship, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) encourages academic librarians to publish in Open Access journals.
When academic librarians choose to publish in subscription-based journals, ACRL recommends a standard practice of depositing the final accepted manuscript in a repository to make that version openly accessible. The author should be responsible for determining at what date the deposited manuscript becomes openly accessible, taking into account applicable institutional or funder policies, as well as other relevant considerations.
ACRL further encourages academic librarians to make other forms of scholarship, such as monographs, presentations, grey literature, and data, openly accessible.
It is also imperative that publishers of Library and Information Science scholarship explore and implement publishing models to make their content openly accessible as soon as possible. Librarians who are editors, reviewers, and authors should assist with this effort by engaging with their publishers about these models.