Elena Kagan, dean of the Harvard Law School.
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Harvard Law School to make all faculty articles available on the Net for free
May 8, 2008
BOSTON — Harvard Law School's faculty unanimously voted to make all faculty member-authored scholarly articles available on the Internet free of charge.
In a May 7 announcement about last week's vote, Harvard Law School said the move makes it "the first law school to commit to open access." The decision means that people all over the world can benefit from ideas generated at Harvard Law School, said dean Elena Kagan.
"The Harvard Law School faculty produces some of the most exciting, groundbreaking scholarship in the world," Kagan said.
Harvard Law School said the articles would be available in an online repository, which could also be accessed by outside services like Google Scholar. The policy would also allow faculty to post the articles on their own Web sites. Educators at any institution are also free to give the articles to students as long as they're not used for profit.
"The acceptance of open access ensures that our faculty's world-class scholarship is accessible today and into the future," said John Palfrey, executive director of the school's Berkman Center for Internet & Society vice dean of library and information resources.
The open access proposal came from a university-wide committee formed to pursue options for expanding the dissemination of scholarly work. Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to adopt a similar policy earlier this semester.
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