At the November 16 meeting of the Faculty Council, the Library Policy Committee returned to lead further discussion of a proposal for a University open access policy that would enable immediate, unfettered access to Emory faculty authored scholarly articles. Members of the Council discussed the policy’s “opt-out” clause, its practicality, and whether it required a waiver by the faculty member’s dean or dean’s designate. They also talked about how the proposed new digital repository would interact with existing exter- nal digital repositories for scholarship, such as the Social Science Research Network. Key points from the proposal: authors will retain sufficient copyrights to their own work; an opt-out clause will be provided; the open access digital repository will be easy to use for authors and readers; the open access policy will be subject to periodic review and critique. A full copy of the proposed policy is available at http://guides.main.library.emory.edu/OA. Comments and questions are welcome. When faculty conversation indicates that timing is appropriate, the Faculty Council will vote on a resolution to support the policy.
Month: November 2010
Possible Federal Changes to Individual Conflict of Interest Rules
In a presentation to the Faculty Council on the work of his office, Vice President for Research Administration David Wynes described pending federal regulation that would dramatically overhaul the federal conflict of interest regulations for individual faculty. Among the major proposed changes:
- The threshold for review for conflict of interest in outside activity would be reduced from $10,000 in stock or income to $5,000 combined;
- Threshold for review for interest in a private company set at zero equity;
- Requirement that the university post a website listing all faculty with conflicts of interest, even if the conflict is managed; and
- Requirement that every faculty member take continuing education in conflict of interest.
Wynes said a final ruling on the proposed changes was expected in late winter 2011.
Emory Dual Career Network Launched
The Faculty Council heard a brief presentation in November from Jennifer Jeffries-Gal- lagher, manager of the newly created Emory Dual Career Network. This new endeavor, launched as a partnership between Human Resources and the Office of the Provost, springs out of the initiative of the Work/Life Committee concerning dual couple recruit- ment recommendations. “We benchmarked with our peer organizations to see how they handled dual career recruitment issues,” Gallagher said, “and we found that almost all of them had dedicated staff or offices for this process.” The goal of the network is to provide job search information and assistance—both within and beyond Emory—free of charge to dual career spouses or partners beginning early in the recruitment process and extending for a year or until the individual is employed. In-depth information about the network, including eligibility and the process, is available at http://www.hr.emory.edu/emorydualcareernetwork/.