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University of Texas University of Texas Libraries

Open Access at UT Austin

Learn more about Open Access and what is happening at UT Austin to improve access to research.

UT Austin Open Access Support

OA Support at UT

Financial Support

We know that publishing costs money whether it's done via a subscription model or open access. UT Libraries actively advocates for a scholarly communication system that is more equitable to readers and to authors. We also want to support open access business models that are financial sustainable over the long-term. To that end, there are several open access publishing initiatives or open access infrastructure projects that we financially support. Click on the Current UT Supported OA Initiatives to find a list of the open access initiatives we currently support

Support Through Expertise

In addition to financial support, the Libraries provide support in the form of online resources (like this one), workshops, consultations, and advice to faculty, committees, and working groups on campus. Colleen Lyon, Head of Scholarly Communications, is available for consultations as are our subject liaison librarians.

Consortial Support

UT Libraries is a founding member of Texas Digital Library (TDL), a collaborative consortium based in Texas and rooted in higher education. Our membership in TDL provides many direct benefits to our campus.

  • Repository hosting - TDL hosts our institutional repository, Texas ScholarWorks, and our data repository, Texas Data Repository.
  • Online journal publishing - TDL hosts OA journals for us through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform.
  • Theses & dissertations - TDL hosts our electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) submission system, Vireo.
  • Community - TDL builds capacity through community building and community supported projects. We benefit from learning from and with our colleagues across the state.

OER Support

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) defines Open Educational Resources (OERs) as teaching, learning and research resources released under an open license that permits their free use and repurposing by others. OERs can be textbooks, full courses, lesson plans, videos, tests, software, or any other tool, material, or technique that supports access to knowledge. OER are basically open access works that are specifically related to teaching and learning resources. They have significant benefits for both instructors and students.

Statements of Support for OA at UT

Theses and Dissertations

UT Austin has required graduate students to publicly share their thesis or dissertation (ETD) in Texas ScholarWorks since 2008. There are options to embargo the thesis or dissertation for up to seven years before it's made public. Before making a decision about whether to embargo your ETD, you should talk to your advisor(s), colleagues, and review some of the literature on this topic. If you have questions about Texas ScholarWorks, please contact Colleen Lyon, Head of Scholarly Communications. If you have questions about policies regarding ETDs, please contact the Office of Graduate Studies.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.