This presentation examines the open access (OA) practices and policy clarity of academic law journals in which Canadian legal researchers have published over the past ten years (2015-2024). The study explores the current policies of these journals, offering insights into the accessibility and transparency of legal scholarship. In 2023, following the implementation of a new OA policy by the Fonds de recherche du Québec, librarians supporting law faculty research in Quebec observed that law journals exhibited lower rates of policy transparency, OA publishing options, and peer review compared to academic journals in other disciplines. This prompted a larger review of over 300 law journals in order to establish how law journal policies compare against other disciplines and to better support legal researchers in publishing OA.

The data collected focuses on six research universities across Canada, selected based on criteria such as high research output, geographic diversity, and linguistic representation. These criteria ensure the inclusion of institutions from different regions of Canada, with representation from English-speaking, French-speaking, and bilingual institutions. By focusing on these universities, the study captures a broad and representative picture of academic legal publishing practices.

The presentation will detail the decision-making process behind journal inclusion and collection, which was based both on publishing data collected from Web of Science and OpenAlex and university research office reports. The researchers will also discuss the type of information collected about each journal and the OA policies consulted in making these decisions, such as those established by Plan S and the FRQ. Researchers also tracked the number of journals included in OA policy tools, such as Jisc Open Policy Finder and DOAJ, and the type of editorial review. This data informs the broader landscape of legal publishing and highlights unique insights into the current state of OA practices.

Preliminary findings highlight significant variation in OA practices, with some journals demonstrating clear, inclusive policies, while others maintain restrictive or opaque models. The goal of this research is to provide actionable insights for scholars, editors, librarians, and institutions seeking to enhance accessibility and inclusivity in legal academic publishing, and more broadly, the Access to Justice movement.