Why academic librarians must be alert and open access publishers must be self-boosters | Fair Dealing in Education

"The University of Western Ontario Journal of Legal Studies (a.k.a. the Western Journal of Legal Studies) is an open access law review launched in 2012. All UWOJLS articles are available for anyone to view, download, or print, no subscription necessary. Copyright in the individual articles belongs to the respective authors. Its full text is indexed in HeinOnline. The advantage of this relationship with HeinOnline is mainly one of exposure; HO is a highly-subscribed database, and when new journals are added, subscribing institutions may be notified to update their catalogues. A relatively new journal such as the UWOJLS, which is run by students and publishes in a field that some say is over-saturated, will often struggle to be noticed. The disadvantage? Sometimes the only exposure a journal gets is through its association with proprietary databases such as HeinOnline. This means that a library’s catalogue entry will direct readers only to the proprietary database. The terms of the database publisher’s licence may limit certain uses of the journal articles in the database, such as inclusion in course packs or electronic learning management systems. (These uses may well fall under the scope of fair dealing, but a discussion of conflicts between contract and users’ rights in copyright will have to wait for another day.) See, for example, the UWOJLS record in Simon Fraser University library’s electronic journal list: http://cufts2.lib.sfu.ca/CJDB4/BVAS/journal/565486. The record indicates, correctly, that the HeinOnline subscription licence does not allow articles to be used in e-reserves or course packs. What the record does not indicate, however, is that the University of Western Ontario Journal of Legal Studies is a fully open access publication whereby such uses are permissible. Instructors considering UWOJLS articles for use in their courses may decide against it on the basis of these purported restrictions. Ironically, this would result in a net reduction in exposure. The moral of the story? Collections and licensing librarians must be alert to the possibility that a journal appearing in a proprietary electronic database may in fact allow for uses not permitted by the database’s subscription licence. It’s crucial to check every time, particularly in the case of new or more recently-launched journals that are more likely to be open access. Indicate that the journal is open access and provide the link in the catalogue record ..."