摘要：Objectives: The research assessed faculty awareness of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy and faculty experiences with the copyright terms in their author agreements with publishers. Methods: During the fall of 2011, 198 faculty members receiving funding from NIH at a large urban academic institution were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey. A total of 94 faculty members responded to the survey, representing a response rate of 47%. Results: Thirty percent of the survey respondents were either unaware of or not familiar with the NIH policy. Further, a significant number of faculty members (97.8%) indicated that they usually signed their copyright forms “as is.” The findings show that time, confusing instructions, and unclear journal policies are challenges experienced by NIH-funded faculty in complying with the federal mandate. Conclusion: There is a need to educate faculty with respect to the value of retaining their copyrights and self-archiving their publications to help advance public access and open access scholarship. Highlights A majority of faculty members were aware of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy and supported the idea of making the results of publicly funded research available to the public. NIH-funded faculty rarely modified author agreements with publishers, thereby signing away their copyrights and potentially affecting their ability to comply with the NIH policy and their ability to self-archive their manuscripts. Time, confusing instructions, or unclear journal policies were challenges reported by faculty in complying with the NIH mandate. Implications Librarians may wish to engage in scholarly communication outreach efforts across campus to help educate faculty about the NIH public access policy, compliance issues, open access, and copyright. Faculty members could greatly benefit from more information with respect to the rights they can retain under their author agreements.
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