In a February 27 press release, Minister Holder formally announced the newly approved Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications.  The policy, which has been in draft stages for some time, will require grant-holders funded by one of the three federal granting agencies to make their peer-reviewed journal publications freely available online within 12 months. The three federal granting agencies include: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The policy will require NSERC and SSHRC funded researchers to comply with the policy for all grants awarded May 1, 2015 and onward. The policy will not change current compliance requirements for CIHR funded researchers since a similar policy with the same requirements has been in effect since 2008.

Quick Facts

• Open access is the practice of providing free and unrestricted online access to research publications.
• In keeping with the global movement towards open access, the harmonized policy requires that researchers receiving grants from CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC  make their resulting peer-reviewed journal articles freely available online within 12 months of publication.
• Researchers can comply with the open access policy in two ways: ‘self-archiving’ by depositing their peer-reviewed manuscript to an online repository that will make the manuscript freely accessible within 12 months of publication; or submitting their manuscript to a journal that offers open access within 12 months of publication.
• CIHR-funded researchers are also required to deposit bioinformatics, atomic, and molecular coordinate data into the appropriate public database immediately upon publication of research results. They must also retain original data sets for a minimum of five years (or longer if other policies apply).
• Since 2008, SSHRC has invited applications for financial support from open access journals through its Aid to Scholarly Journals funding opportunity. In the 2014 competition, nearly 65% of applicants had an open-access or delayed open-access business model, up from just over 50% in the previous competition.
• The Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications aligns with the objectives of Canada’s Action Plan on Open Government and is a commitment under the updated Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy.

Open access publishing resources for faculty:

Scholarly Publishing Resources from Western Libraries – provides links to open access publishing solutions, directories, and open access advocacy groups for researchers at Western and the affiliated colleges including Scholarship@Western

Scholars Portal DataVerse (a repository for research data collected by individuals and organizations associated with Ontario universities)

University of Toronto Libraries Open Access Resources