The new Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications released in 2015 presented SSHRC, NSERC, and CIHR funded researchers with a challenge of incorporating compliance into their research workflows.
Making publicly funded research publicly available comes across as a very reasonable initiative. Yet it soon became clear that simply informing U of T grant recipients of the new requirements did little to help faculty succeed on this route. Going open access requires some background knowledge of copyright and scholarly communication practices; the closure of the University of Toronto Libraries' Open Access Author Fund combined with the pressures and constraints on researchers’ time made it difficult for faculty to explore this avenue on their own.
This is where the Library with its valuable copyright and scholarly communication expertise, strong support for open access and faculty engagement saw an opportunity to step in to make a difference. We have since worked with faculty in 25 departments, reached out to VPRI and liaisons on 3 campuses, verified copyright status of over 800 works, and helped over 40 researchers comply with the mandate by depositing their materials into the U of T open access institutional repository.
In this presentation our cross-departmental team of librarians and GSLA will give a brief overview of the Tri-Agency OA Policy requirements and routes to compliance. We will outline the areas where the library resources and expertise can fit organically to ease the task of compliance for faculty, complete with examples of cross-departmental cooperation at UTL. From a coordinated outreach effort and targeted consultations to building capacity for assisted repository deposit, we will share the approaches and tools that can be incorporated by colleagues at any library. We will discuss the success and limitations of each approach as well as routes to move forward with responsive yet scalable services and solutions
