From the Creative Commons website, CC BY 4.0
Effective February 20, 2024, the University of Victoria Libraries revised statement of commitment asserts that any outputs (regardless of format) by UVic librarians and archivists will be shared “as openly as possible and in a manner consistent with copyright agreements, legislation, and requirements by funding agencies”. UVicSpace (the university’ institutional repository), DataVerse (the repository for data produced at the university), and other trusted open access disciplinary archives are important platforms in helping UVic librarians and archivists accomplish these goals.
The Copyright, Privacy, and Cultural Considerations section outlines important exceptions to the statement. Specific mention is given to honouring the University of Victoria’s Intellectual Property policy, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ (CARL) Freedom of Expression and Inclusive Libraries statement, and the sovereignty of First Nations, Métis and Inuit to control their data (see Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession principles, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the B.C. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act for more information).
These revisions were inspired by similar statements and policies from McGill University Library, University of Saskatchewan Library, and Toronto Metropolitan University Library. Many more institutions across Canada have open access statements – the Open Scholarship Policy Observatory here at UVic provides more information.
Alongside the commitment expressed in this statement, the Library provides support for UVic authors to publish their scholarly work open access through publisher membership and license agreements. Elsewhere at UVic, the Faculty of Education has also adopted an open access policy, which came into effect December 5th, 2019.
For more information about open access and the newly revised policy, please contact the Office of Scholarly Communications.
