Radical Access: The SFU Scholarly Publishing blog

Scholarly Publishing and Open Access blog

The latest news and answers to your questions about scholarly publishing and open access.

Call for Feedback on the Draft, Revised Tri-Agency Open Access Policy

Published by Alison Moore

Canada’s major research funders, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), also known as the “Tri-Agency” have launched a call for feedback on the Draft, Revised Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications. Though the revised policy is still in draft format, it offers us a useful look at what’s coming for Canadian researchers who receive SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR grants or awards starting on January 1, 2026. Read on for more information about these changes and what they might mean for you. 

Narrative CVs: prioritizing impact and influence

Published by Alison Moore
Have you heard the news? In 2025, Canada’s major research funder, the Tri-agency  - home of your favourite funders, NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR - is moving away from the Canadian Common CV to a new, narrative format CV, called the “tri-agency CV”. This new CV format will be rolled out for Tri-agency competitions over the next year, starting with the current SSHRC Impact Awards competition. In this blog post, we’ll dive into what narrative CVs are, what the tri-agency is looking for in a narrative CV, and share some resources for developing your own narrative CV.

AI and theses

Published by Alison Moore
While SFU does not at this time (December 2024) have institution-wide guidelines around the use of AI in graduate theses, we know that this is a topic of considerable interest. As such, in consultation with the SFU Associate Dean, Policy + Curriculum in Graduate Studies,  we have compiled some considerations on the process for disclosing the use of AI tools in thesis research and writing. Please note that this is an area that is changing rapidly so the information contained here may be swiftly out of date!

Fair dealing and OER: Pathways to using copyrighted content

Published by Ioana Liuta
Read to learn about best practices and guidance for reusing copyrighted content in Open Educational Resources under fair dealing, and about a Code of Best Practices in Fair Dealing for Open Educational Resources, published by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), which can help to provide an alternative approach to using copyrighted materials in your OER.

BRIC 2024: a conversation with the keynote speakers

Published by Ioana Liuta
Ioana Liuta, Digital Scholarship Librarian in Research Commons, in an interview with the keynote speakers for the Bibliometrics and Research Impact Conference (BRIC) 2024, Juan Pablo Alperin and Stefanie Haustein. BRIC was organized and hosted at SFU Vancouver at Harbour Centre, June 5-6, 2024.

Community scholarship and the Ending Violence Association of BC

Published by Ioana Liuta
The Community Scholars Program, initiated and coordinated by SFU Library, provides access to academic publications to employees of charities and non-profits in the local communities of six BC universities. We were able to interview two Community Scholars in order to hear their thoughts on various aspects of the program and the value of accessible research outputs, from the perspective of the non-profit sector.

Two new transformative agreements to benefit SFU researchers

Published by Ioana Liuta
SFU Library is pleased to announce the launch of 2 new transformative open access agreements with scholarly publishers. Through our membership in the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), SFU has recently signed agreements with Elsevier and Oxford University Press.

Mickey Mouse and the public domain

Published by Ioana Liuta
On Mickey Mouse entering the public domain, learn more about joint authorship and copyright, the rule of the shorter term, or mutant copyright.

On altmetrics, going beyond citations to measure research impact

Published by Alison Moore
Altmetrics are an innovative approach to measure the impact of research that looks beyond traditional citation counts to measure a broader range of impacts, including online dissemination, social media attention, and public policy implications.

Contact us: For assistance with scholarly publishing, please contact digital-scholarship@sfu.ca.

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