by Ann Barrett, Geoff Brown, Melissa Helwig, & Melissa Rothfus

“Open scholarship, which encompasses open access, open data, open educational resources, and all other forms of openness in the scholarly and research environment, is changing how knowledge is created and shared.”  (Association of Research Libraries. Open Scholarship. [Members area] https://www.arl.org/)

Open scholarship, open research, or open science, encompasses the process, communication, and re-use of research and its inclusion within wider society. Open science is no different than traditional science, but it allows research to be carried out in a more transparent and collaborative way. Opening the research process supports validation and reproducibility. It helps to maximise the impact of research and provides the foundations for others to build upon.

In 2017, David Lewis, Dean of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis Library (IUPUI) proposed that academic libraries commit to investing 2.5% of their total budget to support the common infrastructure needed to support open scholarship. He called it “the 2.5% commitment,” and the goal was to have the academic library community collectively increase investment in common open infrastructure and open publications.

Many academic libraries have successfully taken up this challenge and the Dalhousie Libraries have met the 2.5% commitment and more. The summary below showcases what we have done so far.

Infrastructure for Open Research at Dal
The Dal Libraries is using open source (OS) software platforms for the following key services:

• DalSpace, our institutional repository, is running on DSpace (from Lyrasis),
• Open journals content is running on Open Journal Systems (OJS, from the Public Knowledge Project),
• Open educational resources are running on PressBooks,
• Digital exhibits are running on Omeka,
• Repository software DataVerse is hosting research data (developed by Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences (IQSS) at Harvard University)
• Our Archives use Access to Memory (AtoM) and Archivematica.

We provide financial support to these software projects through sponsorship or membership programs with many of the agencies mentioned below.

Collaborative Support
We also support organizations like SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and SCOSS (Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services). SPARC has an open agenda focused on advocacy, education, incubation and collaboration. SCOSS supports Open Access and Open Science infrastructure including: DOAJ, PKP, Sherpa/Romeo, OAPEN, etc.

Behind the scenes, we also take part in LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) which is a peer-to-peer network of institutions focused on robust preservation of digital materials.

We are members of international open initiatives like Crossref (to create Digital Object Identifiers [DOIs]), as well as ORCiD, providing persistent digital identifiers for researchers.

Supporting Authors to Publish Open with APC Waivers, Discounts, and the Free, “Green” Open Access (OA) Option
We know a common obstacle to open practices are Author/Article Processing Charges (APC). The Dalhousie Libraries have been active in seeking new and transformative agreements with publishers that allow for APC waivers or discounts for Dalhousie researchers. Most recently, there have been announcements about waivers with Sage and discounts with Elsevier, and many more options are also available and listed on our APC page. We will continue to pursue these kinds of agreements in future.

In addition, Dalhousie authors can typically make work published in subscription-based, traditional (non-OA) journals Open Access by depositing a version in DalSpace. This Open Access option, called “Green OA” is completely free of charge to authors and fulfills the Tri-Agency Policy on Open Access policy requirements.

 Moving Forward
The recent establishment of the Open Research Committee (a standing committee of the Dalhousie Libraries, with executive sponsorship from the Vice-President Research and Innovation) will provide new possibilities for adopting Open guidelines for Dalhousie.

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Current Agreements/Memberships Provided by the Dalhousie Libraries for Open Initiatives

Memberships that Support Key OA Software and Tools

• Crossref Membership & Crossref Current Year “CY” costs
• DataVerse
• LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Save)
• LYRASIS Membership
• ca Membership
• Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)
• Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS)

Membership/Agreement Provide APC discounts or waivers
Below is a list of selected titles, view a full list at: https://dal.ca.libguides.com/open_access/apc

• American Chemical Society: $250 APC discount
• Biomed Central Institutional Membership (Medicine/Health): 15% APC discount
• Cambridge University Press: 100% APC Waiver
• Canadian Science Publishing: 50% APC discount on select titles
• Elsevier: 20% APC discount on most journals
• Open Library of Humanities (OLH): 100% waiver for APCs
• PLOS Medicine: 100% APC waiver
• Sage: 100% APC waiver on most SAGE Choice journals and 40% discount on SAGE gold journals
• Taylor & Francis: 25% discount on T&F Open Select titles

Membership/ Agreement Provides Open Access to Content

• Érudit (Quebec non-profit publishing platform in humanities and social sciences)
• Heritage Content Access Preservation Fund (Canadiana.org preservation and access to Canada’s documentary heritage)
• Open Book Publishers (OBP) (OA academic publisher in Humanities, Social Sciences, Mathematics and Science)
• PhilPapers (Philosophy journals)
• Scoap3 Fund Contributions (Physics books & journals)