As more and more journals are becoming digital – with several being exclusively available in digital format – it is increasingly important to establish viable means for ensuring free access to back issues of mathematical journals. For the mathematics community, it would be optimal to have the shortest possible window before open access. On the other hand, a short window would put financial pressure on learned societies and make it difficult to reach a broad agreement.

The IMU Executive Committee – on the advice of the IMU Committee on Electronic Information and Communication (CEIC) – has now created an ad hoc Committee on Permissions (CoP) to advise the IMU on a negotiating strategy regarding the window for open access. 

Specifically, the task of the CoP is to report to the IMU Executive Committee regarding the following:

• A recommendation for IMU policy on the time frame for making papers freely available after publication, together with technical details such as licenses.
• A concrete proposal for how to implement this recommendation, for example by outreach to publishers, with the particular goal of negotiating access to existing back issues.
• Any additional considerations that may affect the availability of past papers, such as the demise of publishing companies or issues with archiving.

The first report of CoP was considered by the IMU Executive Committee at its meeting in February 2022.

The chair of CoP is Thomas Brennan (Harvard Law School, US), and his email address for this is chair@cop.mathunion.org. Other members are

Ilka Agricola (Germany), CEIC Chair
Henry Cohn (US)
Samuel Hansen (US)
Evelyne Miot (France)
Valeria Simoncini (Italy)
Stephen Watt (Canada)