Tri-Agency Open Access Policy compliance

Scope

The Tri-Agency Open Access Policy applies to faculty research funded by the three Canadian federal granting agencies, and requires peer-reviewed journal articles resulting from these grants to be made open-access and freely available within 12 months of publication. The policy applies to:

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grants received on or after May 1, 2015
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grants received on or after January 1, 2008

The policy does not apply to:

Canada Graduate Scholarships
Research publications other than peer-reviewed journal articles (for example, book chapters)

How do I comply?

There are two ways to comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy: making your article open access at time of publication, or depositing it into an appropriate research repository.

Deposit your work in an open access repository

You may be able to make your work publicly available by providing access to the accepted manuscript version (also known as a "post-print") after publishing your work in a subscription journal. More information about the different versions of journal articles is available on the UWSpace Guide. Your publisher will have a policy outlining how you are able to deposit your work; these policies may include restrictions on when you can deposit the paper (an embargo) and where (for example, not-for-profit subject and institutional repositories). For more information on what rights you have in re-using your work, see the Author rights guide.

How do I deposit in a repository?

The University of Waterloo's research repository, UWSpace, satisfies Tri-Agency policy compliance. Select the appropriate "Deposit your work" link on the front page of UWSpace and follow the instructions, or email us the accepted manuscript with a citation to the published version and we'll do it for you.
Find an appropriate subject-specific repository for your work in the Open Access Directory.

Keep in mind

Publisher embargo periods: Publishers typically mandate that accepted manuscripts be restricted from public access for a period of time, and this embargo period sometimes exceeds 12 months. If you wish to publish in a journal with a longer embargo period, you will need to obtain permission from the publisher or pay an article processing charge (APC) to make your article open access. Contact us if you need help determining the embargo period for your journal.

Publish an open access article

Many academic journals offer authors the option to publish their article open access, even if the journal is typically only available to subscribers - this is known as "hybrid open access". There is typically a cost associated with open access publishing, which can be several thousand dollars. The use of Tri-Agency funds to pay for open access article processing charges is an acceptable use of grant funds.

Keep in mind

Not all journals offer open access options.

Need help?

We're happy to help you understand your publishing options and help you achieve Tri-Agency compliance.

Lauren Byl

Priscilla Carmini

Digital Repositories Librarian