What is open access and how does it relate to ScholarWorks?
An open access publication is one that meets the following two conditions:
The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual (for the lifetime of the applicable copyright) right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for personal use.
A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or well-established organization that weeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving.*
ScholarWorks is a repository which supports the open access publishing model. As such, it is a fundamental step in transforming scholarly communication and providing more comprehensive access to research for scholars everywhere.
*Definition taken from "A position statement by the Wellcome Trust in support of open access publishing" and the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities."