University Research Council

December 15, 2011

Meeting Summary

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Open Access

Rush Miller, Director of the University Library System (ULS), discussed open access. Open access is a family of copyright licensing policies under which copyright owners make their works available publicly. A growing number of publishers have adopted these policies and now allow placement of authors’ pre-publication manuscript, final copy, or the published version in an institutional repository. In the University of Pittsburgh’s case, articles will be made available via D Scholarship@Pitt. The repository provides perpetual and stable access to authors’ works, while increasing their manuscripts’ visibility and discoverability. The ULS established the Office of Scholarly Communications and Publishing, which will deposit the scholarly works on behalf of University authors. The Office will gather bibliographic information about each work, record this information in D Scholarship, and seek permission from the publisher to deposit the author’s paper in the repository.

Several issues were discussed that involve open access:

· Its relationship to the University’s copyright policy

· Graduate student authors’ inclusion in open access

· Individual schools’ adoption of open access

Brainstorming Sessions

The Provost’s Office will sponsor two sessions, during which humanities and social sciences faculty members will discuss how to apply for funding in related fields. The session on humanities funding will take place on January 31, from 4:00 to 5:00, and the session on social sciences funding will take place on February 8, also from 4:00 to 5:00. Both events will take place in the University Club.

Multidisciplinary Projects

The Provost’s Office will explore three multidisciplinary topics: quantum information science, synthetic biology, and engineered materials. Teams will meet regularly to work on the projects. Each team will prepare a white paper as a plan for future research.

Miscellaneous

Council members also discussed:

· Star Metrics

· Reports to the NIH

· The upcoming federal agency trip