Principles and Strategies to Support Openness

The Iowa State University library supports openness through our collections and services. Two of the most prominent reasons for supporting openness include:

  1. Knowledge should be shared: From the University library's Two-Year Framework [pdf]: "The Iowa State University library upholds the values rooted in academic freedom and the land-grant mission of researching and sharing knowledge beyond the campus borders for the common good."
  2. Openness can support a better scholarly ecosystem: As our Diversity and Inclusion Statement states, open and transparent systems of scholarship can help remove barriers that have marginalized "the voices of women, communities of color, scholars from the Global South, and other underrepresented identities in the scholarly record."

The items outlined on this page explain some of the ways in which the Iowa State University library supports open science and scholarship. 

Principles 

University Library Journal Negotiation Principles

The Iowa State University library has developed a set of Principles for Advancing Openness through Journal Negotiations, which were endorsed by the Library Advisory Committee and Faculty Senate in 2019. The three major components of these principles include:

  • Prioritize Openness: we will prioritize agreements that advance open access and other methods of open dissemination for research outputs.
  • Seek Transparency: we will reject non-disclosure language in our agreements and share them publicly.
  • Be Financially Sustainable: we will prioritize agreements that provide long-term financial sustainability for our library and support a diverse scholarly publishing landscape.

These principles have already helped the University library better negotiate with publishers for more fair and sustainable subscriptions in 2020.

    Policies and Resolutions

    The University library and Iowa State Faculty Senate have both released statements in support of open access publishing: 

    The University Library updated its collection policy in 2022:

    OA 2020

    The University library signed the Expression of Interest to support OA2020 in 2018 with the support of the Faculty Senate Executive Board. 

    OA 2020 is an international movement whose declaration supports:

    • flipping scholarly journals from subscription to open access publishing
    • converting monetary support from subscription models to support new, sustainable open publishing models
    • collaborating with one another to further this work and support a swift and effective transition to openness that will serve scholars and society at large.

    The University library has addressed each of these topics over the last two years: 

    • The ISU Digital Press supports the open access needs of scholarly societies with OA journals, helping them remain open and sustainable. One example is the Press' partnership with the Meat and Muscle Biology journal. More information about this partnership can be found on the American Meat Science Association's website.
    • The University library has begun supporting more open access agreements and memberships to help cover author-facing open access fees for ISU corresponding authors.
    • Iowa State University library has been able to support landmark open access agreements through collaboration with other universities, such as the recent ACM open access agreement [pdf] that ISU coordinated with the University of California (UC), Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

    Strategies 

    Support for ISU Authors

    The Iowa State University library supports open access publishing by covering all or a portion of open access publishing fees for ISU-affiliated authors. To learn more about the options available for supporting your open access publications, visit our Support for Authors webpage.

    Support for Organizations

    The University library has worked to support open access on campus and around the world by investing in organizations, programs, and membership models that encourage innovative and sustainable approaches to openness. Many of these investments are highlighted on our Investments webpage.