2025 Wrapped! Licensing Edition đź“–
By: Emily Haugen, Strategic Engagement and Communications Advisor
https://doi.org/10.82389/cnhy-jw52
What’s the CRKN Licensing Program been up to this year?
It’s been a big year for the Licensing Program. In 2024–25, we made meaningful progress toward our collective goals and continued to deliver strong value to members by pushing for cost containment, expanding equitable access, and strengthening the foundation for open knowledge in Canada.
Let’s start with the big numbers
Every year, member institutions make major investments in scholarly content and support thousands of researchers as they publish in academic journals. Our role is to help reduce those costs so libraries and researchers can continue investing in research, teaching, and knowledge creation.
This year, CRKN members collectively saved more than $42 million through our license agreements compared to paying full list prices. That’s not just a big number—it’s real, tangible impact across campuses and communities. It means more resources for students, more flexibility for libraries, and more support for the research that drives Canada forward.
Authors are publishing their research without paywalls!
Open access is something the academic community cares deeply about. When research is openly available, more people can read it, build on it, teach with it, and use it to advance knowledge in their fields. It strengthens scholarship and creates a broader, more equitable foundation for discovery.
But publishing open access isn’t always straightforward—and it’s rarely free. That’s where CRKN’s open access agreements make a real difference. Through our read-and-publish agreements, researchers at CRKN member institutions can publish their work openly at no cost to them.
These agreements remove financial and administrative barriers so researchers can focus on what matters most: sharing their ideas with the world.
We celebrated 11 years of the Partnership for Open Access with Érudit
In 2025, we celebrated 11 years of collaboration between CRKN and Érudit through the Partnership for Open Access (POA). Since 2014, the POA has supported Canadian scholarly journals and expanded open access without relying on APCs, contributing to the global growth of diamond open access. This community-driven, non-commercial model is now well-established and recognized internationally, with support from more than 90 university libraries and over 240 journals.
In 2024–2025 alone, the POA enabled the publication of 3,801 diamond open access articles and provided direct support to 188 Canadian journals.
Speaking of open access…
In 2025, CRKN members saved more than $50 million in avoided article processing charges (APCs) across CRKN’s Read and Publish agreements with Sage, Wiley, and Elsevier. APCs are fees that authors—or their institutions or funders—must pay to make an article openly available in many journals. These charges are significant, with average APCs at these three publishers ranging from $3,508 to $4,097 per article.
Thanks to the collective strength of CRKN’s national negotiations, researchers can support open access publishing while avoiding these substantial costs.
The bottom line matters
Licensing and Open Access are central to how CRKN delivers value to our members. By negotiating as a collective, we reduce costs for academic institutions, strengthen open knowledge in Canada, and expand the reach of Canadian research both nationally and globally. Each year, CRKN negotiates more than $150 million in content across over 50 national licensing agreements and open access initiatives. Through this coordinated approach, member institutions gain affordable access to essential scholarly resources—and researchers benefit from more opportunities to make their work openly available to everyone.
Why we work as a collective
As we look ahead, collective licensing remains one of the strongest examples of how our network creates shared value. By negotiating together, we reduce costs, expand equitable access, and support a more open and sustainable research ecosystem. In an era shaped by artificial intelligence, rising misinformation, and increasing pressure on library budgets, collective action ensures that trusted knowledge remains accessible to the communities who need it most. Our strength has always been collaboration, and through our licensing program, we will continue to champion pathways that empower researchers, libraries, and learners across Canada.
Stronger Together
Since 1999, universities and academic institutions across Canada have come together through the Canadian Research Knowledge Network to strengthen our collective voice and expand access to trusted knowledge. This year’s progress is another reminder that collaboration works—and that we accomplish more when we move forward as a united community.
In 2026, we will begin negotiations with all five major publishers, marking an important year of advocacy on behalf of our members. We know how critical cost containment and equitable access are in today’s challenging budget landscape, and we are committed to delivering the savings and value that our members rely on.
Here’s to another year of collective action, bold negotiations, and meaningful wins for Canada’s research community in 2026!
Emily Haugen (https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5603-8098)
A mission-driven communications and engagement professional, Emily's career spans the non-profit, government, and healthcare sectors. She holds an MBA, BBA and Non-Profit Certificate.