Background
Access to electronic information resources for overseas students and students in partner institutions in the UK –a briefing paper for UK Higher Education institutions October 2011
JISC Collections is the service which negotiates with publishers of journals and other electronic information resources on behalf of all Higher and Further Education Institutions and Research Councils in the UK. The basis for these negotiations is a Model Licence (see below).The most frequent question received by the JISC Collections help-desk relates to providing remote access to staff and students of partner institutions in the UK or overseas. This briefing paper aims to clarify what is permitted and what is restricted, and to suggest a course of action where access is prohibited. What is a Model Licence? The JISC Collections Model Licences http://tinyurl.com/modellicence set out our preferred terms and conditions for licensing content from journals and other electronic resources. Some publishers accept these without question; with others we have to negotiate slightly different terms –thus there is an individual licence for each resource. All licences are available on the JISC Collections website www.jisc-collections.ac.uk and each institution decides whether or not to accept the terms of the licence and gain access to the particular resource. A licence is a legally binding document: by accepting it and paying the relevant licence fee, the institution agrees to be bound by its provisions, some of which are detailed, below. The JISC Collections Model Licences contain a number of provisions that are more favourable than many standard commercial licences for use of electronic information resources. Who is authorised to use the electronic information resources? The Model Licences refer to Authorised Users, and these fall into two categories: 1. Those permitted to have access whether on or off site are: a current student of the Authorised Institution; a member of staff (whether permanent or temporary, including retired members of staff) of the Authorised Institution; a contractor engaged by the Authorised Institution whose contract requires access to the electronic information resources; teaching and/or library staff who at the request of the Authorised Institution provide support to current students of that institution. Note that this EXCLUDES students registered at a Partner Organisation (see below). 2. Those permitted to have access only on site are: Walk-in Users. These are persons who are NOT current students or members of staff (current or retired) or contractors of the Authorised Institution, but who are permitted by the institution to access its secure network from computer terminals within the campus premises. Members of this category can therefore access the electronic information resources by ‘walking in’ to the library or other designated areas of the campus, but are restricted to using it only in those areas.
Authorised Users at partner institutions Many Authorised Institutions have partnership arrangements with other institutions, such as: overseas campuses or overseas partner organisations; Further Education Institutions where some Higher Education courses are taught; other partner organisations within the UK, such as, for example, those franchised to validate continuing professional development (CPD) courses. Whether or not a member of staff or a student at a partner institution is an Authorised User of resources at the Authorised Institution depends on the nature of the partnership. Staff and students who are registered at the partner institution but NOT with the Authorised Institution MAY NOT access the Authorised Institution’s electronic information resources remotely under the Model Licence (except for teaching and library staff of the partner institution that at the request of the Authorised Institution provide support (see under 1 above). Why must students and staff be registered with the Authorised Institution? When an institution enters into a licence agreement for electronic resources it takes on certain obligations, including: issuing passwords or other access information only to registered staff and students; ensuring that only registered staff and students are permitted access to the electronic information resources; ensuring that all staff and students are made aware of what they are allowed and not allowed to do with the electronic information resources; notifying the Publisher immediately and providing full particulars on becoming aware of any breach of the licence by staff or students; fully investigating any breach of the terms of the licence as soon as they become aware of it, initiating disciplinary procedures in accordance with the institution’s standard practice, ensuring that such activity ceases and preventing any recurrence. What can an institution do if it wants to provide access to students or staff registered with a partner institution? An institution would not be able to fulfil its obligations under the licence if it were to make electronic information resources available to students and staff with whom it did not have a direct relationship. A breach of a licence is a serious matter and can be grounds for termination of the licence.This places the rights of your users and potentially users in other institutions in jeopardy.
What can an institution do if it wants to provide access to students or staff registered with a partner institution? Most publishers will consider extending a licence agreement to other students and staff in exchange for an additional fee. However, the publisher will not always have the right to permit use of the resources in every country of the world. They may, for example, have a sales arrangement with an agent in another country, in which case rights of access would need to be sold via that agent. If the partner institution is outside the UK, therefore, the rights position for the relevant country must be clarified. If so, can access be limited to staff and students teaching or studying that course? In order to consider a request to extend a licensing agreement, each publisher will require the following information: the number of students and staff in the partner institution; the location of the partner institution; the method of controlling remote access (e.g. UK Access Management Federation, Athens, etc). The institution needs to show that access can and will be limited to the relevant staff and students in the partner organisation; the nature of the relationship with the partner institution: for example, is the partner delivering courses which the Authorised Institution validates? JISC Collections has drafted template licence agreements that institutions may use to negotiate such extensions: http://tinyurl. com/partnerorgs. When planning to establish a partnership arrangement, whether in the UK or overseas, institutions should involve their library staff at the earliest opportunity. The library staff will be able to highlight any licensing issues that are likely to arise and start negotiating with publishers if necessary. Always check the fine print Sometimes a licence negotiated by JISC Collections for a specific resource will differ from the Model Licence as a result of the negotiation process mentioned above. For example, some may exclude students studying in overseas campuses, even if they are registered students of the Authorised Institution. It is important to check each licence, especially the permitted uses and restrictions, before the electronic information resource is used. Disclaimer: This briefing paper should be used for information purposes only. It does not provide legal advice. Always check the relevant sections of the licences your institution has signed for particular electronic information resources before you provide access or allow use of such resources. If in doubt, please seek legal advice. For more information please contact the JISC Collections’ helpdesk on Tel. +44 (0)20 3006 6088 Email. help@jisc-collections.ac.uk
Frequently Asked Questions What is the definition of a current student?
Any student, part-time or full time, undergraduate or post-graduate, registered with the Authorised Institution.
Are students permitted access for pre-reading before their course begins?
Yes, providing they are registered students of the Authorised Institution.
Are students on accredited university courses that are taught at external institutions permitted access?
Not unless they are registered with the Authorised Institution. If they are registered with the external institution, access must be authorised through that institution.
What about students attending courses at the Authorised Institution’s wholly owned subsidiaries?
This is a grey area as the publisher might not be aware that the partner organisation is wholly owned by the Authorised Institution. It is always better to check the position with the publisher concerned before including such users as part of the Authorised Institution.
Is it possible for alumni to remain or become Authorised Users?
Few publishers are willing to grant licences that include alumni, because of the probable damage to their subscription revenue. For instance, law graduates who had continued access to databases of legal information from their university would be less likely to maintain a corporate subscription in their law firms.
Does the definition of staff member mean that The Model Licence allows for teachers of a member of staff must be employed by the Authorised Users to be given access. So it institution? does, for example, permit access to a teacher employed by an FE college or a subsidiary company who teaches students registered with the Authorised Institution. Members of staff of another organisation, who do not teach students registered with the institution or are not library staff, must not be given access. Are visiting fellows and visiting professors allowed access?
They are allowed only ‘walk-in’ access (see above), unless they have a contract of employment with the Authorised Institution.
There is a growing trend of collaboration across the HE sector, with project teams having members from more than one institution. Can access be given to all the members of these teams?
No, only to those members registered with the Authorised Institution. However it might be possible to provide the members of a collaboration team of another institution with a temporary contract for services, issued by the Authorised Institution.