SPARC

Canadian Institutes of Health Research Introduces Draft Policy Implementing Broad Access to Publicly Funded Research with Minimal Restrictions

For Immediate Release
November 28, 2006

For more information, contact:

Jennifer McLennan
SPARC
jennifer@arl.org
(202) 296-2296 x121

Tim Mark
CARL
(613) 562-5385
carl@uottawa.ca

Washington, DC and Ottawa, November 28, 2006 – SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and CARL (the Canadian Association of Research Libraries)—together representing over 200 academic and research libraries across North America—commend the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for the strength and timeliness of its Draft Policy on Access to Research Outputs.

The Draft Policy http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/32395.html will govern peer-reviewed journal publications, research materials, and final research data stemming from CIHR funding, It marks a significant step forward for Canadian science and puts Canada in the forefront of the global open access movement. CIHR is the major federal agency responsible for funding health research in Canada.

In its response to the Draft Policy SPARC presents three recommendations for refinement:

• That grantees be required to comply with the policy;
• That the specifications for qualified archives and repositories should be explicitly detailed; and
• That articles must be deposited immediately upon publication in an open archive, but to offer the flexibility of allowing the grant or award recipient to perform the deposit or to require the journal (or another agent) to make the deposit on the researcher’s behalf and in compliance with CIHR requirements.

The SPARC letter also highlights the importance of access to data: “As science becomes increasingly data-driven, the need to ensure broad, timely, and persistent access to this material rises in importance. We feel it is particularly notable that CIHR calls for grant holders to provide high-quality metadata to ensure effective future sharing of data and datasets.”

In its response CARL asks that CIHR work with stakeholders

• To develop a Canadian-based solution for housing and making accessible the outputs of CIHR-funded research over the long term;
• To implement a more structured approach to providing access to research data; and
• To ensure that compliance to the policy is linked to future funding decisions.

CARL President John Teskey welcomed the statement that “CIHR recognizes the importance of disseminating research results, data and materials to further advance the scientific research and discovery.” He noted that “the Draft Policy illustrates the commitment of the Canadian health research community to excellence in terms of the dissemination of research output.”

The CARL letter is also supported by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).

“SPARC commends CIHR’s goals as well as the overall draft policy, which is strong, timely and consistent with emerging practice internationally,” said SPARC Director Heather Joseph. “We encourage CIHR to continue to move forward and implement a policy that effectively ensures the open sharing of CIHR research outputs.”

The CIHR’s Draft Policy on Access to Research Outputs (http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/32326.html) is the result of consultations, and a survey of the health research community, focusing on topics related to access. The process was conducted through the CIHR Web site beginning in April 2006. The policy is guided by an advisory committee whose members represent Canadian researchers across CIHR's four research theme areas: biomedical, clinical, health services, and population health.

The SPARC letter to CIHR is online at http://www.arl.org/sparc/advocacy/canada/cihr_draft_policy_response.pdf

The CARL letter is online at http://www.carl-abrc.ca/projects/open_access/pdf/cihr_draft_policy_response.pdf

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CARL

CARL is the leadership organization for the Canadian research library community. CARL’s members represent Canada’s 27 major academic research libraries , Library and Archives Canada, the Library of Parliament and the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI). For more information see www.carl-abrc.ca.

SPARC

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and SPARC Europe are an international alliance of more than 300 academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system. SPARC’s advocacy, educational, and publisher partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of research. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc/.