Barriers and pathways for advancing open science and open scholarship in academic institutions: a Canadian perspective

This repository contains the manuscript “Barriers and pathways for advancing open science and open scholarship in academic institutions: a Canadian perspective.”

The paper examines why the adoption of open science and open scholarship remains uneven across Canadian universities despite growing funder mandates and policy expectations. It identifies nine interconnected structural barriers spanning research evaluation and incentives, cultural norms, training and capacity, cyberinfrastructure, governance and coordination, and equity considerations, including Indigenous data sovereignty, accessibility, and linguistic inclusion.

Building on this diagnostic framework, the manuscript outlines institutional pathways for enabling sustainable change, emphasizing the integration of top-down leadership (policies, funding, governance) with bottom-up community practices (disciplinary engagement, training, and cultural change). A detailed case study of Concordia University illustrates how coordinated multilevel governance can translate open science principles into concrete institutional policy, culminating in the unanimous adoption of a Senate Resolution on Open Science and Open Scholarship in 2025.

This work contributes to ongoing discussions on research policy, institutional transformation, and open scholarship in Canada and beyond.