Tri-Council Releases Open Access Policy

Source: Canada News Release via Academica

A new policy introduced on Friday stipulates that Canadians will have free online access to tri-council-funded research. Under the new Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications, all peer-reviewed journal publications funded by a tri-council agency must be made freely available online within one year. The policy will apply to NSERC- and SSHRC-funded researchers who are awarded grants after May 1, 2015; CIHR-funded researchers have been subject to a similar policy since 2008. Researchers can comply with the policy either by “self-archiving” their manuscript with an accessible online repository, or by publishing in a journal that offers open access within 12 months of publication. “With this new Open Access policy, the Tri-Agencies are adopting a single, harmonized approach to promoting Canadian research to the world. The policy both reflects and facilitates new forms of collaboration that are a hallmark of scholarship in the social sciences and the humanities,” said Ted Hewitt, Executive Vice-President of SSHRC.