Open Access
Introduction
The implementation of Open Access
What about copyright?
Latest developments
Selected readings on Open Access
The Canadian context
In Canada, as elsewhere, research funding agencies are seriously investigating policies that would mandate researchers to provide open access to their publications:
On February 28, 2008, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)
and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), announced
the launch of
Create Change Canada,
a Canadian version of the popular researcher-focused Web resource on scholarly
communication. The site outlines how faster and wider sharing of journal
articles, research data, simulations, syntheses, analyses, and other findings
fuels the advance of knowledge. It offers practical ways faculty can look
out for their own interests as researchers.
On October 10, 2007, the University of Ottawa Library Network, in association
with the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) hosted Open
Access: the New World of Research Communication. An enthusiastic
audience of about 110 students, faculty, researchers and librarians attended.
The PowerPoint presentations, webcast and audio file are available at the
CARL website together with Frequently Asked Questions about Open Access.
The Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) launched their Policy
on Access to Research Outputs in September 2007. The Canadian Association
of Research Libraries (CARL) welcomed the new policy in press
release on September 6, 2007.
In March 2007, The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
provided further support for Open Access with its Aid
to Open-Access Journals program to support the open-access publication
of peer-reviewed articles in the social sciences and humanities.
For greater detail on these and other activities, and for the latest developments
in Open Access in the international community, see Peter Suber’s Open
Access News.
The CARL
Institutional Repository Program is a major project launched by the
Canadian Association of Research Libraries to support the implementation
of institutional repositories at Canadian academic institutions. The project
began in the fall of 2002 and there has been enthusiastic participation
by Canadian libraries.
