Grant recipients who receive funding from the three federal granting agencies after May 1, 2015 must make their peer-reviewed journal publications freely accessible online within 12 months of publication.

The Tri-Agency – the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) – recently announced the open access policy on publications. The new policy requirements do not pertain to other research outputs – for example, books, chapters or creative writing.

“The Tri-Agency’s open access policy recognizes that the value, use and application of research outputs increases as they are made available more broadly to, for example, the global research community, non-governmental organizations and society as a whole,” says Steven Liss, Vice-Principal (Research). “Furthermore, open access fosters knowledge and technology transfer and stimulates innovation and collaboration.”

"Open access fosters knowledge and technology transfer and stimulates innovation and collaboration."
Steven Liss, Vice-Principal (Research)

Queen’s faculty, researchers, staff and students can choose one of two options for making their journal articles freely accessible.

• Route A – Free deposit to QSpace (Green Open Access): Researchers deposit their peer-reviewed, author-accepted manuscript at no cost in QSpace, Queen’s permanent and secure online archive of research works, or an open access subject repository of their choice.
• Route B – Pay to Publish (Gold Open Access): Researchers publish in an open access journal, which involves paying article processing charges. Queen’s University Library has agreements with a number of publishers or open access supporter schemes that give Queen’s authors discounts on open access publication fees.

“Queen’s University Library and University Research Services believe that depositing works in QSpace, via the Green Route A, is the easiest and most cost-effective means for Queen’s researchers to meet this new requirement,” says Martha Whitehead, Vice-Provost and University Librarian. “Authors can gather traditional citation metrics as well as additional alternative metrics on journal publications that are deposited in QSpace. Furthermore, perpetual access to research results and key usage metrics in QSpace provides a ready mechanism to demonstrate policy compliance in future grant applications.”

For more information on the Tri-Agency open access policy and how to make your research publications open access, visit the resource page on the Queen’s University Library website.