Open access (OA) are materials that are made available online without restrictions typically associated with traditional publishing. OA published materials are free to access and can be shared and distributed without restrictions.
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) defines open access as:
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).
There are open access repositories and open access journals.
Open access repositories store and share research works that are available to access without payment.
Open Access Journals
Open access journals are publications that make all articles available without payment or subscription.
SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), PLOS, and Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) created the HowOpenIsIt? Open Access Guide to assist people in identifying journals' OA policies.
Open access has become an essential way to ensure that information and research data can have a greater impact in our communities, both locally and globally.
Learn more about OA through FAIR: Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital assets
It is important to note that OA principles are not applicable in every situation, notably when working with Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous data sovereignty calls for Indigenous Peoples, as sovereign Nations, to have the right to control data made by or about Indigenous people and their communities.
The current movement toward open data and open science does not fully engage with Indigenous Peoples rights and interests. Existing principles within the open data movement (e.g. FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) primarily focus on characteristics of data that will facilitate increased data sharing among entities while ignoring power differentials and historical contexts. The emphasis on greater data sharing alone creates a tension for Indigenous Peoples who are also asserting greater control over the application and use of Indigenous data and Indigenous Knowledge for collective benefit.
The First Nations principles of ownership, control, access, and possession – more commonly known as OCAP® – assert that First Nations have control over data collection processes, and that they own and control how this information can be used.
Many funding bodies, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), referred to as the Tri-Agencies, require researchers to make their research open access.
Review the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (2015).
Key points from the Policy:
Sherpa Juliet is a resource to search funders' policies on OA and data archiving.
