Generally, authors are able to obtain a waiver from their institution’s or university’s open access policy via a webpage on their institution’s or university’s website. Institutions allow for such waivers in their policies. There is often a short online form to fill in which will then generate a waiver for the article automatically.
If you are unable to find the relevant webpage, we suggest you search for ‘open access policy waiver’ on your institution’s or university’s website, or in a search engine including the name of your institution/university.
Below are useful links to a few of the US universities’ and institutions’ open access waiver policies and waiver request pages which we have found. This should not be treated as a comprehensive list, but if you are from one of these universities or institutions you may find it useful.
| Institution |
Waiver form |
| University of California (including UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, UC Office of the President, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UCSF, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab) |
http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/oap/generate |
| California Institute of Technology |
https://www.library.caltech.edu/open-access-policy-waiver-request-form |
| Georgia Institute of Technology |
http://openaccess.gatech.edu/get_started |
| Harvard University |
https://osc.hul.harvard.edu/authors/waiver/ |
| University of Hawaii |
http://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/about/scholcom/opt-out/contact.php (fill out the web form once signed in) |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/faq-on-the-oa-policy/ (see Opting out of the policy) |
| The Ohio State University |
https://library.osu.edu/document-registry/docs/359/stream (the Director or designate will waive application of the policy upon written request by a Faculty member) |
| Princeton University |
http://oawaiver.princeton.edu/ |
| Stanford University |
https://library.stanford.edu/blogs/stanford-libraries-blog/2020/11/stanfords-open-access-policy-has-been-approved (authors can request a waiver from the Office of Scholarly Communications) |
| The University of Rhode Island |
http://uri.libguides.com/oapolicy/waiver |
Some universities and institutions have open access policies, but faculty are not always aware of their existence. Therefore, if you are not sure, we suggest you search for ‘open access policy’ on your institution’s/university’s website, or in a search engine including the name of your institution/university. Or you could check with your university librarian.
This website contains a list of a number of institutions and universities which have an open access policy, but it should not be treated as a comprehensive list. Each Named Author who is affiliated to a university/institution is responsible for checking whether their institution or university has an open access policy and, if so, whether it is incompatible with IOP Publishing’s green open access policy.
Institutions with such policies are predominantly in the USA.
Yes. Generally universities/institutions have set their policies so that waivers apply at an article level. Faculty members cannot permanently opt themselves out of this arrangement, but they can opt out on an article-by-article basis. This means that, for each article you wish to publish on a subscription basis with IOP Publishing, you will need to request a waiver.
No. For the time being, you do not need to send the waivers to IOP Publishing. However, please retain them somewhere safe as we may need you to send them to us in the future as proof of compliance.
Generally most open access policies apply at an article level rather than author level. If this is how your institution’s or university’s open access policy works, then only one author per relevant institution/university needs to obtain a waiver for the article.
Each relevant Named Author is responsible for obtaining a waiver for the article from their institution or university (as applicable).
The Submitting Author is responsible for checking with all of their co-authors of the article to ensure that they have obtained a waiver if required.
The Submitting Author must then sign the copyright form, including ticking the ‘Please tick this box to confirm that each Named Author, who is affiliated to a university/institution which has an open access policy which is incompatible with IOP’s green open access policy, has obtained a waiver for the Article from their institution or university’s open access policy’ box.
Please obtain all necessary waivers prior to signing the copyright form. They must all be obtained prior to acceptance, at the latest.
Some examples are:
- If the policy requires the Final Published Version (rather than the Accepted Manuscript) to be deposited; or
- If the policy requires an open access or any form of Creative Commons licence to be attached to the Accepted Manuscript when depositing it in the repository which does not comply with its copyright status; or
- If the institution/university repository automatically attaches an open access or Creative Commons licence to the Accepted Manuscript which does not comply with its copyright status
The above list is intended to provide examples only. It is not a comprehensive list of how a policy could be incompatible with IOP’s green open access policy.
*Accepted Manuscripts of subscription articles published by IOP are either fully copyright protected or published under a CC BY-NC-ND licence. To check the copyright status of the Accepted Manuscript, refer to the cover sheet attached by IOP Publishing.
For more information on open access policy waivers, why they are required, which Named Authors they apply to and how to request a waiver, please refer to this guidance on requesting open access policy waivers.
Each Named Author affiliated to an institution/university, whose article is being published on a subscription basis (i.e. not on a gold open access basis), must obtain a waiver for the article from their institution’s or university’s open access policy, if the policy is incompatible with IOP Publishing’s green open access policy. This must happen before the article is accepted. Without all the relevant waivers being obtained, IOP Publishing may not be able to publish the article.
