PDF - CARL - ABRC

Launched on April 28, 2010, PubMed Central Canada, the result of collaboration between CIHR, the
Canada Institute of Scientific and Technical Information (CISIT) and the [U.S.] National Library of
Medicine, will help researchers with CIHR funding to comply with the Policy on Access to Research
Outputs via the PMC manuscript submission system. PMC Canada will provide Canadians a freely
accessible national digital repository of the latest peer‐reviewed health and life sciences literature at
their fingertips. It is a vital part of Canada’s research infrastructure giving researchers desktop access to
a searchable, permanent and freely accessible archive of Canadian health research enabling them to
translate that knowledge into solutions to important health issues. PMC Canada builds on PubMed
Central (PMC), the archive developed by the US National Library of Medicine, and joins UK PubMed
Central (UKPMC) as a member of the larger PMC International network. 27
Ensuring optimal researcher uptake of the innovative infrastructure and services that are being created
to broaden the reach of their research will depend, in part, on successful educational/outreach
initiatives to inform them of their rights as authors and of the options and best practices available to
them. The Canadian Association of Research Libraries has produced a suite of communications
materials detailing the advantages of open access 28 . The Canadian Association of University Teachers
(CAUT) issued an important intellectual property advisory in the summer of 2008 to assist academic staff
in retaining copyright ownership in the articles they publish in journals. Without copyright ownership,
academic staff risk losing control of their own work and may not be entitled to email it to students and
colleagues, use it for course reserve purposes, place it in an institutional repository, publish it in an open
access journal or include it or parts of it in subsequent works. The CAUT IP advisory stresses the point
that “Journals require only authors’ permission to publish an article, not a wholesale transfer of the full
copyright interest. To promote scholarly communication, autonomy, integrity and academic freedom,
and education and research activities more generally, it is important for academic staff to retain
copyright in their journal articles. 29 ”
27
PubMed Central Canada http://pubmedcentralcanada.ca/
28
Canadian Association of Research Libraries, Greater Reach for Your Research: Resources for Authors
http://www.carl‐abrc.ca/projects/author/author‐e.html
29
Retaining Copyright in Journal Articles, CAUT Intellectual Property Advisory, July 2008
http://www.caut.ca/uploads/IP‐Advisory1‐en.pdf
10