The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) have announced a new educational initiative called 'Greater Reach for Your Research'. The campaign encourages Canadian authors to use their campus digital repository to increase the use and impact of their research outputs.
The initiative features a new brochure and matching web portal, a slidecast on the importance of retaining copyright, the SPARC Canadian Author Addendum and updated brochure. The other resources available include a video interview with Ernie Ingles, Vice Provost and Chief Librarian at the University of Alberta. Faculty associations and repository advocates are invited to print or order copies of the brochure and access the suite of resources available through the CARL and SPARC websites. A US version of the brochure will be released in 2009.
The campaign lays emphasis on the practical benefits of repositories - such as more exposure for researchers' articles, universal access to research literature and long-term preservation. Citation research has reportedly shown that articles posted to a digital repository are cited more frequently than articles appearing only in journals.
Digital repositories are online archives maintained by universities, colleges, funding agencies, and other institutions to collect, preserve and provide unrestricted online access to all types of institutional research outputs. These include published articles and research data, and are seen as key components of the emerging digital research infrastructure.
