From open data to open publishing: How the Libraries supports open research

Whether you're working with open data, sharing research outputs or publishing open access, University of Waterloo Libraries offers expertise and services to support your research.

Researchers today face growing expectations to share their work beyond traditional publications. Open research practices can help increase transparency, enable collaboration and ensure that research outputs can be discovered and used by broader audiences.

Whether you're looking to work with open data, share research findings, comply with funder requirements or maximize the reach of your scholarship, Waterloo Libraries provides support throughout the research lifecycle.

Explore the potential of open data

Open data can help researchers explore new questions, identify trends and generate insights using information that is freely available for others to access and reuse.

The Libraries' Geospatial Centre provides one example, helping researchers, instructors and students discover, access and work with open geospatial data. Through consultations, training and support for GIS tools such as ArcGIS, staff help users analyze, visualize and interpret data in meaningful ways.

Researchers can access a wide range of GIS datasets through the Libraries, including City of Cambridge open data and City of Kitchener story map. These resources support projects across disciplines, from urban planning and environmental studies to public policy and community engagement.

Share your research data

Sharing research data can increase transparency, support reproducibility and enable future research. It can also help researchers meet funder requirements and maximize the value of their work beyond a single project.

The Libraries provides support for research data management and data sharing, helping researchers identify appropriate repositories and understand best practices for preserving and sharing data. Guidance is available for meeting funder requirements, selecting a repository and preparing data for long-term access and reuse.

Researchers interested in depositing datasets can explore the Libraries' Research Data Deposit Guide for information and support.

Make your publications openly available

Many researchers are required to make their publications openly available to comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications.

UWSpace, the University of Waterloo's institutional repository, provides a platform for preserving and sharing scholarly outputs. Depositing work in UWSpace can help researchers meet funder requirements while increasing the visibility and discoverability of their publications.

The Libraries offers guidance throughout the self-archiving process, including support with publisher permissions, copyright considerations and repository deposits.

Reduce publishing costs

The Libraries also helps researchers publish open access through publisher agreements that reduce or waive article processing charges (APCs).

In 2025, Waterloo researchers saved more than $3.3 million in publishing fees through library-supported open access agreements and funding programs. Together, these supports helped fund or discount publication costs for 692 scholarly articles, making more Waterloo research openly available to readers worldwide.

Increase the reach of your research

Making research openly available is only one part of increasing its visibility.

The Libraries offers resources to help researchers build scholarly profiles, demonstrate research impact and connect their work with broader audiences. Through initiatives such as the Research Impact Challenge, researchers can learn strategies for increasing discoverability, showcasing their scholarship and extending the reach of their research.

Get started

Whether you're exploring open datasets, depositing research data, publishing open access or sharing your work through UWSpace, the Libraries provides support throughout the research lifecycle.