Scholarly Communications Statement of Principle
As a university committed to advancing strategies For the Public Good, and in alignment with our values, the University of Alberta Library (UAL) commits to working together with other stakeholders to ensure the system through which research and scholarship are created, evaluated, distributed, and preserved (also known as scholarly communication) is more open and sustainable than the one we find ourselves in now. In keeping with the spirit of the Vienna Principles, UAL supports scholarship being open where possible, in order to expand knowledge for the good of society. As stewards of information, we believe in building sustainable methods of open scholarship that respect the rights of creators and publishers. These principles inform and guide our decisions, partnerships, investments, and strategy as a research library and partner in the research enterprise.
Scholarly knowledge is increasingly sold by multinational commercial publishers who seek to control and restrict the use of publicly-funded research, resulting in skyrocketing costs. UAL supports open initiatives that are beginning to change the landscape and ensure new and sustainable resourcing models that benefit the producers of research and the public who support scholarly work through public funds. We invest in and support infrastructure and initiatives that will transparently and fairly enable access to information for the public good, in keeping with the university’s goals. This general principle can be applied across all forms of scholarly communication that UAL supports in our interaction with publishers, as well as with those who create the systems and tools that enable the wide dissemination of scholarship. Together, we will support a more sensible, open, and sustainable future for scholarly communication.
Date of approval: July 2019.