# Open Scholarship Policy Observatory (Volume 1)/CRKN–RCDR 2019–2024 Strategic Plan

This observation was written by Caroline Winter, for the Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory and the Implementing New Knowledge Environments partnership.
The Canadian Research Knowledge Network – Réseau canadien de documentation pour la recherche (CRKN–RCDR) revisits its strategic plan every three to five years. The CRKN 2019–2024 Strategic Plan is the first to be developed after CRKN’s merge with Canadiana.org in 2018. As such, the plan encompasses CRKN’s commitments to improving access to knowledge and to preserving and ensuring access to Canada’s digital heritage materials (CRKN 2019a). It was published in October 2019 after a comprehensive consultation process.
In the Strategic Plan, CRKN articulates its revitalized vision, mission, and commitment:
   Vision: The world’s knowledge is accessible by all.
   Mission: CRKN advances interconnected, sustainable access to the world’s research and to Canada’s documentary heritage content.[…]
   Our Commitment: CRKN is committed to help expand, advance, transform, preserve, and enrich access to knowledge. (2019a 2)
It also articulates three strategic goals that intersect and augment one another:
* Transform Scholarly Communication
* Develop and Foster Partnerships
* Collaborative Advocacy (CRKN 2019a 3–4)
For example, in order to conduct its strategic project of developing a Canadian approach to open scholarship, CRKN will collaborate with members and stakeholders and implement the approach through infrastructure developed with members, funders, and other partners.

## The CRKN Strategic Plan and the INKE Partnership

Collaborating with stakeholders and partners including Érudit, the Leadership Council for Digital Research Infrastructure (LCDRI), the National Heritage Digitization Strategy (NHDS), the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access in Particle Physics Publishing (SCOAP3), and INKE has been a cornerstone of CRKN’s work in advancing digital scholarship, a significant goal in its 2016–2018 Strategic Plan (CRKN 2019b). One of the outcomes related to this goal was the creation of the ORCID consortium in Canada, ORCID-CA; see “ORCID: Connecting Research and Researchers” and “ORCID Update: Integrating ORCID iDs into Research Funding Workflows.” for more information.
Rebecca Ross and Jason Friedman of CRKN discussed the strategic plan in their presentation “A Strategy for Open” at INKE 2020.

## The CRKN Strategic Plan and Open Scholarship

Transforming the digital scholarly landscape in Canada has long been part of CRKN’s mandate. Through the Integrated Digital Scholarly Ecosystem (IDSE) project, for example, CRKN undertook a collaboration with the ORCID Canada Consortium (ORCID-CA) and developed the Institutional Mobilization Toolkit, the Journal Usage Project, and the Canadian National Digital Heritage Index (CNDHI) (See “Integrated Digital Scholarship Ecosystem”).
The new Strategic Plan’s introductory message from Clare Appavoo, CRKN’s Executive Director, and Alan Shepard, Chair of the Board, emphasizes that the organization’s role has shifted from supporting the research community as they react to change to supporting change driven by the research community itself (2019b). As such, CRKN is now able to focus on its foundational goal of transforming scholarly communication to be more open, supported by robust digital research infrastructure (2019b). Although its efforts focus on the Canadian research community, CRKN’s vision is international, recognizing the global nature of open scholarship.

## Works Cited

* CRKN (Canadian Research Knowledge Network). 2019a. CRKN 2019–2024 Strategic Plan. https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/en/strategic-plan.
* CRKN (Canadian Research Knowledge Network). 2019b. CRKN’s Strategic Plan 2019–2024. [Presentation]. CRKN Access to Knowledge Conference, October 16–18, 2019, Ottawa.