Open Access Policy Update

This presentation explores the status of open access policy
developments internationally, and particularly in Canada, as of April
2007. While open access resources are substantial, and growing
rapidly, the primary issue for open access archives (institutional
repositories) is content acquisition, and few researchers fully
understand open access, illustrating an ongoing need for policy. Open
access policy initiatives are happening around the world. Sherpa
Juliet lists more than 20 funding agency policies, from at least 10
countries. More than half the policies are by medical research
funders. ROARMAP lists at least 40 institutional policies from at
least 12 countries. Many more policy initiatives are in the works,
such as the European Commission and the U.S. Federal Research Public
Access Act. In Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council adopted open access in principle in 2004, and recently
initiated an Aid to Open Access Journals program, a one-year bridge
program for SSHRC subsidized journals. Genome Canada has a strong
open access policy for both published research results and data.
Policy development is underway at the Canadian Institutes for Health
Research, the International Development Research Centre, and the
Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance.