CARL and SPARC offer Canadian authors new tool to widen access to published articles

[Jennifer McLennan <jennifer@arl.org>]

For immediate release
August 15, 2007

For more information, contact:

Tim Mark, CARL
(613) 562-5385
carl@uottawa.ca

Jennifer McLennan, SPARC
(202) 296-2296 ext. 121
jennifer@arl.org

CARL AND SPARC OFFER CANADIAN AUTHORS NEW TOOL TO WIDEN ACCESS TO 
PUBLISHED ARTICLES
Popular author copyright addendum adapted for use in Canada

Ottawa, ON and Washington, DC - August 15, 2007 - The Canadian 
Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and SPARC (the Scholarly 
Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) today announced the 
release of the SPARC Canadian Author Addendum, a new tool for 
authors in Canada to retain key rights to the journal articles 
they publish.

Traditional publishing agreements often require that authors 
grant exclusive rights to the publisher. The new SPARC Canadian 
Author Addendum enables authors to secure a more balanced 
agreement by retaining select rights, such as the rights to 
reproduce, reuse, and publicly present the articles they publish 
for non-commercial purposes. It will help Canadian researchers to 
comply with granting council public access policies, such as the 
Canadian Institutes of Health Research Policy on Access to 
Research Outputs. The Canadian Addendum reflects Canadian 
copyright law and is an adaptation of the original U.S. version 
of the SPARC Author Addendum.

"The SPARC Canadian Author Addendum allows researchers to have 
maximum impact and visibility for their publications - with the 
comfort of knowing important rights still belong to them," stated 
Carolynne Presser, Chair of the CARL Scholarly Communication 
Committee and Director of Libraries at the University of 
Manitoba.

"The Canadian Addendum is an important contribution to the 
ongoing international movement to support authors in making 
research articles accessible to all who may benefit from their 
findings," said Heather Joseph= , Executive Director of SPARC. 
"Canada has been a leader in the move toward increased access to 
research and we're pleased to have played a role in collaborating 
with CARL on this important initiative."

An explanatory brochure complements the Addendum. Both the 
brochure and addendum are available in French and English on the 
CARL and SPARC Web sites and will be widely distributed. SPARC, 
in conjunction with ARL and ACRL, has also introduced a free Web 
cast on Understanding Author Rights. See 
http://www.arl.org/sparc/author for details.

For more information, please see the CARL Web site at
http://www.carl-abrc.ca or the SPARC Web site at http://www.arl.org/sparc.

###

CARL

CARL is the leadership organization for the Canadian research 
library community. CARL's members represent Canada's 27 major 
academic research libraries, Library and Archives Canada, the 
Library of Parliament and the Canada Institute for Scientific and 
Technical Information (CISTI). For more information see 
www.carl-abrc.ca.

SPARC

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), 
with SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan, is an international alliance 
of more than 800 academic and research libraries working to 
create a more open system of scholarly communication. SPARC's 
advocacy, educational, and publisher partnership programs 
encourage expanded dissemination of research. SPARC is on the Web 
at http://www.arl.org/sparc.

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