Abstract:

UK is the first country whose university firstly launched OA policy in the world and it is also the exact country which OA policies are very popular in its university for all universities ranked top 20 have those own OA policies. OA polices in UK universities have a clear “forced” character: university is forced to launch its own OA policy by funding policies demanding; the source of policy is mainly from administrative/management decision not liking that it is mainly from faculty voting in America and the material must be deposited in institutional repository according almost all university OA policies. Based on registration information from ROARMAP website and complementary information from policy text of 91 samples of university OA policy in 89 UK universities, this paper comprehensively reveal the development status quo of UK university OA policy between 2003 and 2016. Through reading 79 samples of those policies, this paper also analyses the policy content highlights, characteristics and problems from three aspects: the overall policy content, purpose and scope of application, organizational guarantee and clear duties of policy implementation, which will provide very important reference for domestic universities in those policies making. In the end, the paper discusses the enlightenment for domestic OA movement.

Keywords: Open access, Campus policy, Policy content, UK universities, Investigation and analysis, Enlightenment