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Category: policy

On “Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria,” by James Somers

On “Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria,” by James Somers

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In this article for The Atlantic, James Somers explores why the original dream behind Google Books — and perhaps even behind Google itself, Somers suggests — has been quashed. Somers traces the trajectory of Google Books, from the centuries-long pipe dream of creating the world’s largest library in “one place” to its current manifestation: alive, but with utopic vision unrealized. Somers provides a compelling account of the class action lawsuit between Google and a coalition of authors and publishers, as…

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On “Open Access Mandates and the ‘Fair Dealing’ Button,” by Arthur Sale, Marc Couture, Eloy Rodrigues, Les Carr, and Stevan Harnad

On “Open Access Mandates and the ‘Fair Dealing’ Button,” by Arthur Sale, Marc Couture, Eloy Rodrigues, Les Carr, and Stevan Harnad

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In “Open Access Mandates and the ‘Fair Dealing’ Button,” Arthur Sale, Marc Couture, Eloy Rodrigues, Les Carr, and Stevan Harnad discuss the provision of a “fair dealing button” on research that is deposited in a funder’s or institution’s repository. The fair dealing button developed out of the longstanding tradition of individuals writing to authors to request a copy of their article. With the fair dealing button, this process is automated. But how does this function connect to the open access…

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On “United Kingdom’s Open Access Policy Urgently Needs a Tweak,” by Stevan Harnad

On “United Kingdom’s Open Access Policy Urgently Needs a Tweak,” by Stevan Harnad

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In “United Kingdom’s Open Access Policy Urgently Needs a Tweak,” Stevan Harnad points out a flaw in the Research Councils UK (RCUK) policy released in 2012 that resolved to make any RCUK-funded research open access within 2 years. The issue, as Harnad sees it, is that the RCUK has agreed to direct more funds to Gold OA (i.e., open access journal publishing) over Green OA (i.e., OA repository deposit). This will not make researchers publish OA, Harnad argues, as it…

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On “Open Access Towards Bridging the Digital Divide – Policies and Strategies for Developing Countries,” by Allam Ahmed

On “Open Access Towards Bridging the Digital Divide – Policies and Strategies for Developing Countries,” by Allam Ahmed

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It is easy to make the case for open access in North America, where there are coordinated, national efforts to develop technical infrastructure. One of the frustrating things about our current scholarly communication system is that it is still not entirely open access despite the fact that we have the technological capability to create and sustain an OA publishing system. Indeed, we are lucky here in Canada, for many reasons. But a robust, open access-ready technology infrastructure is not the…

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On “ACRL Policy Statement on Open Access to Scholarship by Academic Librarians” and “IFLA Statement on Open Access – Clarifying IFLA’s Position and Strategy”

On “ACRL Policy Statement on Open Access to Scholarship by Academic Librarians” and “IFLA Statement on Open Access – Clarifying IFLA’s Position and Strategy”

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Both the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) have public position statements on open access. IIFLA released “IFLA Statement on Open Access – Clarifying IFLA’s Position and Strategy” in April 2011, and ACRL released “ACRL Policy Statement on Open Access to Scholarship by Academic Librarians” five years later, in June 2016. Both documents provide an official statement on open access, although IFLA takes a much stronger position in regards…

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On “International Policy and Practice on Open Access for Monographs,” by Josephine Asmah

On “International Policy and Practice on Open Access for Monographs,” by Josephine Asmah

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Josephine Asmah prepared “International Policy and Practice on Open Access for Monographs” as a report to the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences regarding the state of open access policy and practice in regards to monographs, internationally. This is a unique focus, as most academic and policy-driven conversations about open access concern journals or data, at least in Canada. Journals have been prioritized over monographs in this context for a few different reasons: Time: monographs have a longer publication…

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On “Comprehensive Brief to Open Access to Publications and Research Data for the Federal Granting Agencies,” by Kathleen Shearer

On “Comprehensive Brief to Open Access to Publications and Research Data for the Federal Granting Agencies,” by Kathleen Shearer

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In this 2011 document, “Comprehensive Brief to Open Access to Publications and Research Data for the Federal Granting Agencies,” Kathleen Shearer reviews the research dissemination landscape in Canada, especially within the context of open access. She divides her report into two sections: publications and data. Although the general premise behind open access and open data is the same (that is, free and universal access to research materials), the implementation considerations are actually rather different. There remain challenges to Canadian researchers’…

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On “Require Open Access to Results of Research Funded by Canadian Taxpayer” by Heather Morrison et al.

On “Require Open Access to Results of Research Funded by Canadian Taxpayer” by Heather Morrison et al.

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The “Require Open Access to Results of Research Funded by Canadian Taxpayer” report was developed by Heather Morrison, Leslie Chan, Michael Geist, Stevan Harnad, and Christian Vandendorpe, among others, for the Government of Canada. It preempts the “Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications” by ~5 years, although it is a clear precedent of that policy. Morrison et al. make direct recommendations in “Require Open Access”: primarily, they suggest that all funded research should be required to be deposited in institutional…

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On the Government of Canada’s “Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications”

On the Government of Canada’s “Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications”

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Governments around the world are developing policies to encourage or ensure open access to the research they fund. These policies vary in scope and implementability, but all of them take the line that publically funded research should be publically available. The “Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications” lays out the Government of Canada’s approach and attitude toward research sharing and dissemination, funneled through the Tri-Agency. The goal of this document is to convince researchers to make their output openly available,…

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On “Capitalizing on Big Data: Toward a Policy Framework for Advancing Digital Scholarship in Canada”

On “Capitalizing on Big Data: Toward a Policy Framework for Advancing Digital Scholarship in Canada”

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“Capitalizing on Big Data: Toward a Policy Framework for Advancing Digital Scholarship in Canada” is a consultation document that was compiled by the Government of Canada (namely the Tri-Council and CFI, in collaboration with Genome Canada) and released in October 2013. The primary aim of this document is to argue that funding policies for digital scholarship and infrastructure in Canada need to be coordinated. The document’s compilers contend that Canada does not have sufficient infrastructure to manage the increasing load…

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