Tri-Agency Open Access Policy

• Recipients of grants from NSERC, SSHRC, & CIHR “are required to ensure that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research are freely accessible within 12 months of publication.”
• This applies to NSERC & SSHRC grants awarded May 1, 2015 and later.
• For CIHR grants, this applies to those awarded January 1, 2008 and later.
• The Principal Investigator is responsible for ensuring compliance to this policy.

• Recipients of a tri-agency grant can choose to either deposit their article in:
  • an online repository or
  • publish in an open access journal.

Option 1: Open Access Repositories

• Open access repositories manage and preserve content which is freely accessible to everyone.
• Depositing your peer-reviewed paper in an institutional repository (such as the University of Guelph’s Atrium) will fulfil this grant requirement.
• Disciplinary specific repositories also fit this requirement.  OpenDOAR provides a searchable list of open access repositories.
• The researcher is responsible for ensuring that the publishing contract for the peer-reviewed article allows for the post-print (the final version of the article, post-refereeing) to be made open access within 12 months of publication. 

Option 2: Journals

• Publishing in an open access journal fulfils the policy’s requirements.  The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) provides a searchable list of open access journals.
• Publishing in a traditional journal is permitted, so long as the post-print version is made open access within 12 months of publication.  
• The SHERPA/RoMEO database provides the copyright and archiving policies of various journal publishers.