About Open Access

Open Access information is digital information that is online, free of charge, and free, in varying degrees, of most copyright and licensing restrictions. Open Access resources typically permit users to download, copy, print, display, distribute, search, index, and link to the information; Open Access resources remain the intellectual property of their creators, who have attribution rights as well as control over the integrity of their work. See more in our glossary of terms.

While the notion of Open Access to scholarly information is not new, widespread access to the Web has fostered interest in the possibilities of Open Access and has accelerated the formation of a global advocacy movement that encompasses authors, researchers, academics, funding organizations, universities, libraries, users and the general public. Additional stakeholders include government entities, commercial publishers, professional associations and societies, and numerous producers of scholarly works.

About Open Access @ UNT

Open Access @ UNT is an initiative to engage and inform our UNT Community Members in a variety of efforts to promote adoption of Open Access policies and practices, to participate in the global Open Access movement, and to provide an online space for information, resources and discussion regarding Open Access.

Initiatives

The UNT Faculty Senate unanimously approved a university-wide Open Access Policy on March 9, 2011 and unanimously approved a revision on November 8, 2017.

In 2012, a group of technologists and librarians, scholars and researchers, university administrators, and other stakeholders promulgated The Denton Declaration, a manifesto that bridges the converging interests of these stakeholders and promotes collaboration, transparency, and accountability across organizational and disciplinary boundaries.

The UNT Scholarly Works repository serves as a central archive for the long-term preservation and access to our UNT Community Members' research, creative and scholarly activities. In addition, our UNT Data Repository houses datasets of the valuable research from our UNT Community. Both repositories are hosted in our UNT Digital Library.

Under the sponsorship of UNTs Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, UNT College of Information, and the UNT Libraries, the annual Open Access Symposium was created as a catalyst to move UNT and other academic institutions in Texas forward in consideration of institutional Open Access policies. The events feature nationally and interanationally recognized leaders in the Open Access movement.

In February 2018, UNT became the seventh US institution and first outside California to sign the OA2020 Expression of Interest [more].

Effective January 2021, UNT requires that PIs for grants from all federal agencies and from others requiring a data-management plan (DMP) share the DMP and an inventory of grant products in the UNT Digital Library [more].

UNT is a founding member of the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship (HELIOS).

More information

Please see our Open Access Guide for additional information on the UNT's services and initiatives related to open access.