About CRKN

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) is a collaborative program of Canada's universities. Incorporated on April 1, 2004 as a not-for-profit organization, CRKN continues the work of the Canadian National Site Licensing Project (CNSLP). Widely recognized in Canada and abroad for playing a significant role in the development of Canada's infrastructure for research excellence, CRKN’s most important initiative is its content licensing program. Through its innovative licensing agreements, CRKN provides desktop access to electronic versions of scholarly journals and research databases for 74 participating universities across Canada. Currently, more than 2,200 scholarly journals and hundreds of thousands of materials are available online to over 850,000 university researchers and students.

To support its licensing program, CRKN is actively engaged in the negotiation of content licenses. These negotiations are responsive to the breadth of needs of the Canadian academic research community and are based on open, sound, and ethical procurement practices that respect the confidentiality of proprietary information provided by both the licensors and licensees. All negotiations are subject to CRKN’s Licensing Principles.

CRKN’s evaluation processes and programs are designed and executed to measure the impact of its activities on research and innovation in Canadian universities. Evaluation reports are prepared by impartial third-party organizations and have thus far shown the success of CRKN in two measures: 87% of researchers reported increased access to electronic journals as having a positive impact on their research, and 82% of library directors reported satisfaction with their participation in the CRKN initiative.

CRKN's administrative offices are located at Preston Square, in Ottawa, from which staff members administrate and coordinate the organizations’ activities and interactions with member universities across Canada. To learn more about CRKN and its activities, please consult the Annual Reports.

 

"I know I speak on behalf of colleagues from coast to coast when I say that the ready access to e-journals we have through CRKN is one of the tools that has the greatest impact on our ability to 'do good science', write good grant applications, and do good research.”

- Robert Ross, PhD
Queen's University