Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications

Peer-reviewed Journal Publications

"Grant recipients are required to ensure that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research are freely accessible within 12 months of publication.

Recipients can do this through one of the following routes:

"Online Repositories - Grant recipients can deposit their final, peer-reviewed manuscript into an institutional or disciplinary repository that will make the manuscript freely accessible within 12 months of publication. It is the responsibility of the grant recipient to determine which publishers allow authors to retain copyright and/or allow authors to archive journal publications in accordance with funding agency policies.

"Journals - Grant recipients can publish in a journal that offers immediate open access or that offers open access on its website within 12 months. Some journals require authors to pay article processing charges (APCs) to make manuscripts freely available upon publication. The cost of publishing in open access journals is an eligible expense under the Use of Grant Funds.

"These routes to open access are not mutually exclusive. Researchers are strongly encouraged to deposit a copy of the final, peer-reviewed manuscript into an accessible online repository immediately upon publication, even if the article is freely available on the journal’s website.

"Grant recipients must acknowledge Agency contributions in all peer-reviewed publications, quoting the funding reference number (e.g. FRN, Application ID)."

Publication-related Research Data
"CIHR only - Recipients of CIHR funding are required to adhere with the following responsibilities:

"Deposit bioinformatics, atomic, and molecular coordinate data into the appropriate public database (e.g. gene sequences deposited in GenBank) immediately upon publication of research results. Please refer to the Annex for examples of research outputs and the corresponding publicly accessible repository or database.

"Retain original data sets for a minimum of five years after the end of the grant (or longer if other policies apply).This applies to all data, whether published or not. The grant recipient's institution and research ethics board may have additional policies and practices regarding the preservation, retention, and protection of research data that must be respected.

Implementation Dates
"CIHR - For research funded in whole or in part by CIHR, this policy applies to all grants awarded January 1, 2008 and onward. While not required, researchers holding grants that were awarded prior to January 1, 2008 are encouraged to adhere to the requirements of this policy.

"NSERC and SSHRC - For research funded in whole or in part by NSERC or SSHRC, this policy applies to all grants awarded May 1, 2015 and onward. While not required, researchers holding grants that were awarded prior to May 1, 2015 are encouraged to adhere to the requirements of this policy."

In April 2012, the Senate of Memorial University approved the Memorial University Statement on Open Access, which supports and encourages the open dissemination of research output.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has issued an Intellectual Property Advisory, advising scholars to retain their copyright

Learn how to use the SPARC Canadian Author Addendum to ensure you retain your author copyright and afford the widest possible distribution and impact for your scholarly work.

Heighten the impact of your work by publishing in Open Access Journals.

Use the SHERPA RoMEO website to find the copyright & self-archiving policies of all major journal publishers.

Improve the visibility of your work by submitting copies of your pre-prints, papers, and presentations to an Open Access Repository.

Use Creative Commons licenses on your work. These provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators.

CITL has created this interactive tutorial to help you learn more about Creative Commons licensing.

Many studies have shown that Open Access publishing leads to higher citation rates for academic articles.

Harvard University Unanimously Votes 'Yes' for Open Access

MIT faculty open access to their scholarly articles. MIT also pioneered the OpenCourseWare project offering free lecture notes, exams and other resources from more than 1,800 courses spanning the institute's entire curriculum. About a million students, self-learners, and educators from almost every country visit the site each month.

University College London has implemented an Open Access policy to all research.

Trinity College Dublin's Research Committee voted unanimously to accept an Open Access policy.

Boston University faculty have unanimously approved an Open Access recommendation.

The Academic Council at Duke University unanimously adopted an Open Access policy for scholarly articles written by the Duke faculty. 

Faculty Senate at the University of Virginia unanaimously accepted the University's Resolution on Scholarly Publication and Author’s Rights.

The Emory University Faculty council unanimously voted to adopt a statement in support of a University wide open access policy to enable immediate, unfettered access to Emory faculty authored scholarly articles.

San Jose State University passsed a senate resolution on Support for Open Access to Scholarly Work and Research.

The University of Northern Colorado passed a Faculty Senate Open Access Resolution.

The University of California passed an Open Access Mandate in 2013.

In April 2010 Concordia University in Montreal became the first Canadian University with a university wide open access policy.

 Mount Saint Vincent University has also recently passed an Open Access Policy.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Patrick Gamsby

Our scholarly communications services are Open Access (OA) initiatives. OA is a global movement to make scholarly content more easily discoverable and accessible by removing subscription and login barriers. Get higher visibility for your work while retaining control over your copyrights.

Student Statement on Right to Research: Scholarly knowledge is part of the common wealth of humanity. Learning and inquiry are impeded when scholars lack access to fellow researchers’ work, and when students lack access to the work of scholars before them.

Budapest Initiative: Removing access barriers to [academic] literature will accelerate research, enrich education, share the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with the rich, make this literature as useful as it can be, and lay the foundation for uniting humanity in a common intellectual conversation and quest for knowledge.

Bethesda Statement: Our organizations sponsor and nurture scientific research to promote the creation and dissemination of new ideas and knowledge for the public benefit. The Internet has fundamentally changed the practical and economic realities of distributing published scientific knowledge and makes possible substantially increased access.

Berlin Declaration: The Internet has fundamentally changed the practical and economic realities of distributing scientific knowledge and cultural heritage. For the first time ever, the Internet now offers the chance to constitute a global and interactive representation of human knowledge, including cultural heritage and the guarantee of worldwide access.