School of Data Science Open Access Guidelines and Recommendations

On February 3, 2021 the School of Data Science's Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) officially passed the Open Access Guidelines and Recommendations. The University of Virginia School of Data Science is guided by goals to further discovery through open, collaborative, and responsible data science research. These guidelines and recommendations are adhered to by all faculty members in their research.

The Open Access Guidelines and Recommendations are part of the School of Data Science’s effort to drive innovation across boundaries in a culture of transparency and open access to knowledge.

“One of the founding principles of the School of Data Science (SDS) is, as far as possible, to disseminate knowledge openly and freely to all, motivated by the desire to maximize the impact of our research and the recognition of our team members. We refer to the output of this effort as open knowledge. Open knowledge supports claims made and the ability to replicate those claims by others.”

These guidelines and recommendations apply to all scholarly and academic work authored by School of Data Science team members, such as journal articles, books, and papers. 

There are several goals in these guidelines, one of which is that all research authored by SDS team members be legally available to everybody, free of charge. 

Additionally, the publication is in a form that all humans and computers can reuse the work for further research. The Academic Affairs Committee designed these goals to build an ecosystem of shared knowledge and to encourage continued, collaborative research at the School of Data Science.

All team members of the School of Data Science will work to meet the guidelines and goals. This is also part of promotion and tenure review for faculty members. 

If SDS Team Members create research products other than scholarly and academic works, such as software and data, they should also make them open and accessible, if possible.

For further details, please refer to our Policies and Procedures.