In February 2015, the new Canadian Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications was announced.
Although the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) has had an open access policy since 2008, it wasn't until this annoucement that all three of the primary research funding bodies in Canada – CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC – implemented a harmonized open access policy.
What It Means For Researchers
- Anyone who has received Tri-Agency funding from May 1, 2015 onward is required to have publications resulting from this research available in some open access format within 12 months of publication.
- Open access can be achieved either by gold/hybrid open access (the article is open at the point of publication) or via green open access (the article is deposited into a subject or institutional repository such as our own UNB Scholar Research Repository).
- The open access version must be, at least, a post-print (wherein post-print is the accepted manuscript before copyediting and layout).
- Article processing charges (APCs), if required for making the article open, are now considered eligible expenses by all three funders. You can check this list from the Canadian Research Knowledge Network to see if your publisher supports an APC discount.
The Tri-Agency's FAQ is an excellent place to get useful information and some specific clarification about this policy.
How We Can Help
UNB Libraries is happy to offer support for researchers trying to meet their OA requirements. Here are a few ways we can help you save money:
- UNB Libraries are members of a number of consortia negotiating lower APC costs for our authors. You can check this list from the Canadian Research Knowledge Network to see if your publisher supports an APC discount.
- determining journal/publisher APC fees and OA compliance policies
- providing a home for OA versions of research in our Institutional Repository, UNB Scholar
- reviewing existing publications to determine which have an allowable OA component
- helping to evaluate journals
If you have any questions about meeting your Tri-Agency requirements and what you can expect from most publishers, please contact your Scholarly Communications Librarian, Mike Nason.
Adapted from the CAUL/CBUA Scholarly Communications Committee Digital Scholarship Toolbox Gitbook.