Toronto Metropolitan University
AC-11: Open Access to Research

Making research outputs from TMU accessible, protecting them from deterioration, and helping to facilitate the widest possible community outreach are among the main principles of the library. We are also dedicated to promoting open access and encouraging other TMU researchers to submit their work to RShare, our institutional repository, in an open access format. Using a "green route" to open access publication, authors can self-archive (upload) their individual copy (often referred to as a post-print) to the institutional repository as an alternative to this locked-down strategy. Although some publishers impose an embargo period, more than 90% of publishers allow this form of use. The deposit of the final typeset publishers PDF copy is typically not permitted under the green route open access policy. The publication of open access versions of academic papers in institutional repositories makes TMU librarians' research results visible to a global audience. This increases the visibility of library research and aids in the knowledge mobilization of TRM-led research.

The policy is opt-in. This policy is aspirational and intended to encourage the practise of making our scholarly outputs open access and available to the public. 

 As Librarian and staff researchers (Library authors), we aspire to share the outputs of our research with the wider community. To do so, we aspire to archive and disseminate scholarly articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and other outputs produced by Library authors and deposit these to our openly accessible publications repository – RShare, In terms of data deposit TMU Librarians (like other TMU researchers) can post research data to a data repository. Researcher’s can consult the Research Data Management Guide for more information on where they can deposit data. To facilitate the archiving of our research work, we grant Toronto Metropolitan University the non-exclusive permission to collect, archive, preserve, reproduce and openly disseminate, in any medium, developed now or in the future, research outputs authored by library authors for non-commercial purposes. The Library will make the work available to the public, taking into consideration requirements for embargos, versions allowed to be posted via signed publishing agreements, or research ethics requirements, or attribution requirements. We will attempt to preserve our own author rights to post a published journal article or book chapter in our institutional repository. We can do so by using author addendums like the SPARC Canadian Author Addendum when negotiating signed publishing agreements if a “Green Route” to open access publishing is not available. We can also choose to publish our scholarly work open access from the onset. The policy will be reviewed after three years and a report presented to the Library Council. https://library.torontomu.ca/info/policies/library-open-access-policy/#:~:text=Readers%20can%20download%2C%20copy%2C%20and,Commons%20licence%2C%20but%20not%20always.

TMU provides Article Processing Charge (APC) savings are available to TMU academics thanks to the Library's involvement in Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) license agreements. https://learn.library.torontomu.ca/c.php?g=325807&p=5229808

TMU provides open access journal hosting services for no cost: “Publications that can be freely read on the Internet. Readers can download, copy, and distribute an Open Access publication for non-commercial research and teaching purposes, as long as attribution is given to the authors. Sometimes this material is published under a Creative Commons license, but not always.” as stated in this link:

https://library.torontomu.ca/info/policies/library-open-access-policy/#:~:text=Publications%20that%20can%20be%20freely,is%20given%20to%20the%20authors.

https://library.torontomu.ca/eresource/

Open Access Policy and Additional Resources: https://library.torontomu.ca/info/policies/library-open-access-policy/#:~:text=Readers%20can%20download%2C%20copy%2C%20and,is%20given%20to%20the%20authors.