Microsoft Research Open Access Policy

Microsoft Research is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible because we recognize the benefits that accrue to scholarly enterprises from such wide dissemination, including more thorough review, consideration and critique, and general increase in scientific, scholarly and critical knowledge.

To advance this commitment, Microsoft Research has adopted the following policy:

RETENTION OF CERTAIN RIGHTS

In connection with our open-access goals, for Microsoft Research-authored scholarly publications (“Works”) submitted to third-party conferences and publishing houses (“Publishers”) for publication, Microsoft Research retains a license to make our Works available to the research community in our online Microsoft Research open-access repository.

AUTHORIZATION TO ENTER INTO PUBLISHER AGREEMENTS

Microsoft researchers are authorized to enter into standard publication agreements with Publishers on behalf of Microsoft in order to assign or license the copyrights in their Works (but no other rights) to Publishers for publication purposes subject to the rights retained by Microsoft as per the previous paragraph. This applies to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored by a researcher while employed by Microsoft.

DEPOSIT

To assist in disseminating and archiving its scholarly work, Microsoft researchers commit to helping Microsoft Research obtain copies of their articles by providing an electronic copy of each article for inclusion in a Microsoft Research open-access repository. Microsoft Research will endeavor to make every Microsoft Research-authored article available to the public in an open-access repository, though in rare cases, certain publisher-imposed conditions may not allow such availability.

Microsoft reserves the right to update this policy at any time.