Increase the impact of MSU research


Initiatives at MSU

Open Access

The library faculty at Montana State University (MSU) define Open Access as the availability of scholarly literature and research documentation that is free of payment and access restrictions. An Open Access item is one that is published with permissions that grant free and perpetual access to distribute, transmit and display, make derivative works with proper attribution, and make small numbers of copies for personal use.  This includes publication and deposit of a version of the item (the publisher’s version, preprint or postprint) in an Open Access digital repository in a timely manner.

 The library can:

  • help decipher publishing agreements, assess copyright for publications or in the classroom,
  • assist instructors in reducing the cost of textbooks byidentifing open educational resources,
  • offer advice about professional networking and personal identifiers [e.g. ORCiD], and
  • help authors increase the impact of an article or publication by increasing access to scholarship and data.

Statement of Support for Scholarly Literature

The library faculty commit to publishing our scholarly work as Open Access when possible for the benefit of the library, MSU, and the library and information science community. We will educate ourselves and the community about the benefit and nuance of Open Access with the aim of increasing the impact of MSU research .

Services and Infrastructure

We will provide training to library faculty, continue to refine our services and databases, assist with data storage, and continue to develop our infrastructure to facilitate open access at the MSU Library. The Library financially supports authors through our Author Fund and through negotiated publisher support for Open Collections & Scholarship.

Our motivation

We look forward to a campus policy that will be championed and adopted by MSU faculty while placing no limits on academic freedom.

Open Access Statement

The Montana State University Open Access Statement was unanimously approved by Faculty Senate on January 14, 2015.