- The University of Manitoba Libraries are committed to the principles of Open Access (OA), as outlined in the IFLA Statement on Open Access to Scholarly Literature and Research Documentation. OA benefits researchers and learners by providing equal access to research information and facilitating scholarly communication. The University of Manitoba Libraries includes OA materials in its collections, and provides support for members of the University of Manitoba community who want to make their research findings accessible to the world.
- The University of Manitoba has an Institutional Repository, MSpace. The placement of your research/publication in MSpace will enhance the visibility of your work, provide an institutional preservation commitment for your work, and help build a collection of University of Manitoba-authored publications. An institutional repository may include items such as faculty publications, theses, technical reports, conference posters, and presentations. It may also include images, audio, video, datasets, and computer programs.
- The University of Manitoba Libraries provides support for members of the University of Manitoba community who want to publish in OA formats. The Libraries supports University of Manitoba authors to publish articles in OA journals by offering discounts on article processing charges or OA fees. The Libraries can also host Open Access journals using the Open Journal Systems (OJS). OJS is a journal management and publishing system that has been developed by the Public Knowledge Project through its federally funded efforts to expand and improve access to research.
- A good source of information on OA journals is the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The DOAJ is a comprehensive listing of all OA scientific and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee the value of their content.
- You can investigate your copyright options and try to retain copyright. Publishers typically require authors to sign over their copyright although authors can often retain some rights to make their work more widely available. When negotiating publishing contract terms, you may consider altering the text to ensure OA for research and teaching. See the SPARC Canadian Author Addendum sample text [PDF]. Investigate other licensing options such as those afforded by Creative Commons licenses that provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators. Be aware of publisher copyright and self-archiving policies before you publish. The SHERPA/RoMEO site provides a listing of publishers' conditions as they relate to authors archiving their work online.
- You can be involved in reshaping scholarly communication. Use your influence as author, editor, scholarly society member, and reviewer. Encourage reasonable journal pricing and discourage alliances with publishers who charge exorbitant prices. Use your position to influence publishers to promote open access. Talk to your colleagues and your liaison librarian about scholarly publishing and OA issues.
For more information, or contact your liaison librarian, or:
Jordan Bass
Medical Archivist
University of Manitoba Libraries
January 2017
