- CARL Comments on the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (2025)
- Towards Open Scholarship: A Canadian Research and Academic Library Action Plan to 2025 (2023)
- Investments in Open: Canadian Research Libraries’ Expenditures on Services, Staff, and Infrastructures in Support of Open Scholarship (2020)
- Advancing Open: Views from Scholarly Communications Practitioners (2020)
- CARL and CRKN Support the University of California in Taking a Bold Stand for Openly Available Research (2019)
- Library Open Access Funds in Canada: Review and Recommendations (2015)
- Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications: Quick Answers (2015)
- Position Statement on Open Access (2013)
- CARL Response to the Consultation on the Draft Tri-Agency Open Access Policy (2013)
- CARL Open Access Flyer (2012)
- Implementing Open Access: Report of the CARL-CRKN Open Access Working Group (2012)
- CARL Open Access Backgrounder (2010)
Open access is a model of scholarly communication that promises to greatly improve the accessibility of results of research. In general terms, scholarly research that is published in open access is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions (although it does require that proper attribution of works be given to authors).
CARL is committed to open access as a means of broadening access to scholarly materials. CARL has asserted the value of open access in its Position Statement on Open Access (2013). The Association has signed two important international declarations on open access.
- Budapest Open Access Initiative (re-endorsed by the CARL membership, November 13, 2009) / Ten Years on From the BOAI
- Berlin Declaration (endorsed by the CARL Board of Directors; signed July 18, 2011)
CARL fully supports the Tri-Agency’s decision to launch its Open Access Policy on Publications and aims to foster a smooth implementation of the policy by engaging and informing researchers on the benefits of enabling free and broad access to their research findings. In addition to the above, CARL is also working towards providing updated information to SHERPA-JULIET, which maintains a list of research funding organizations’ open access policies from around the world.
In 2023, together with CRKN, CARL developed Towards Open Scholarship: A Canadian Research and Academic Library Action Plan to 2025, a robust, multi-pronged open scholarship strategy to proactively champion equitable access to knowledge while serving the needs of the research community.
Institutional Open Access Policy Template and Toolkit
CARL’s Institutional Open Access Policy Template and Toolkit (2020) is designed to support first efforts to create an institution-wide policy. It can also be helpful in developing faculty- or department-specific policies, or in expanding an institution’s existing policies.
-> Access the Institutional Open Access Policy Template and Toolkit
Institutional Open Access Policies
A large number of institutions (or specific departments thereof) worldwide have adopted open access policies or mandate that either require or strongly recommend that faculty make their research publications available in open access, often specifying that it be uploaded to their local institutional repository.
- ROARMAP is the Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies, and contains records of institutional (as well as funder and organizational) mandates that can be searched.
- The Open Scholarship Policy Observatory at the University of Victoria maintains a list of Canadian institutions that have adopted open access statements or policies.