Guidance and Frequently Asked Questions (2026 Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications)

Scholarly publications resulting from funding obtained, in whole or in part, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and/or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (“the Agencies”) have to comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (2026) (“the Policy”).

The Guidance and Frequently Asked Questions below are provided to assist agency-funded grantees and Chairholders in complying with the Policy.

Guidance

  • Step 1: Determine if the Policy applies to your work

    The Policy applies to all peer-reviewed research articles resulting from the Agencies' grants and Chair awards awarded as of January 1, 2027, including grants and awards administered by the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat (TIPS), regardless of whether the publication also features research supported by other funders.

    The Policy does not apply to articles that are not peer reviewed and other forms of scholarly communication (for example, blogs, book chapters, infographics, monographs, podcasts, etc.). The Policy also does not apply to student and postdoctoral awards and fellowships.

    If you are unsure whether the Policy applies to your work, contact the Agencies at:

    If the Policy applies to your work, proceed with the steps outlined below.

  • Step 2: Prepare your research article for peer-review and publication

    The Agencies encourage researchers to produce research outputs in the official language(s) of their choice, and to disseminate their research findings in accessible and barrier-free formats.

    You must complete the following tasks when preparing your research article for peer review and publication:

    • Acknowledge agency contributions

      You must include the following funding acknowledgment in your research article:

      • “This work was supported, in whole or in part, by funding from [AGENCY FULL NAME (AGENCY ACRONYM)], [FRN or APPLICATION NUMBER and any applicable persistent identifiers (PIDs)]”.

      For [AGENCY FULL NAME (AGENCY ACRONYM)], identify the agency(ies) funding your grant or Chair.

      You will find the Funding Reference Number (FRN; CIHR and NSERC) or Application Number (SSHRC) and any applicable PIDs in the agency letter that acknowledges your successful grant application and/or Chairholder award.

      You must acknowledge agency contributions in all research outputs. For more information, consult:

    • Retain your rights

      You must retain your rights over your peer-reviewed research articles resulting from work supported by an agency grant or Chair award.

      You must apply an open license to the Version of Record (VoR), where publisher agreements allow, or the accepted manuscript (AM)
      An open license grants free access and permission to the public to use the manuscript under copyright law, including any conditions governing that use.

      The most common types of open licenses are Creative Commons (CC) licenses. The Agencies strongly encourage authors to use the least restrictive license (that is, CC-BY) wherever possible. Credit to the original creator remains required under a CC-BY license. If needed, you may opt for a more restrictive license (for example, CC-BY-ND, CC-BY-NC) and remain compliant with the Policy.

      Some open access (OA) journals may use their own open license. In such cases, and where the VoR is being used to comply with the revised Policy, authors should confirm with the journal that the license applied is open and conforms to the requirements of the Policy.

      You must communicate obligations under the Policy to the publisher or journal when submitting your manuscript
      To facilitate this process, you may attach the following text to your article submission (for example, in a cover letter or as a separate document):

      • “To whom it may concern,

        This work has been funded, in whole or in part, by [AGENCY NAME (AGENCY ACRONYM)]. As set out in the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (2026), the funded author(s) must ensure that the version of record (VoR) or the accepted manuscript (AM) is made public/OA immediately at the time of publication, with no embargo period, under an open license in a Canadian institutional repository or be made available through a trusted Canadian platform. Therefore, the author(s) has applied a [OPEN LICENSE TYPE] to the accepted manuscript version arising from this submission. The Agencies have published a letter to publishers informing them of this requirement”.

      For [AGENCY NAME], identify the agency(ies) funding your grant or Chair.

      For [OPEN LICENSE TYPE], identify the type of open license you wish to apply.

      Consult the Frequently Asked Questions for more information on rights retention.

      In cases where the journal and/or publisher questions you about retaining your rights over the content of your article and making the AM or VoR OA in a repository at the time of publication, you should contact the agency that funded the research to determine your options to comply. Please provide the agencies with the following information:

      • FRN or Application Number associated with the research to be published;
      • Title of research article and Digital Object Identifier (DOI), if available; and
      • Name of publisher and journal questioning rights retention and deposit of the AM or VoR, and evidence of this correspondence.
  • Step 3: Ensure your peer-reviewed research article is immediately available in a Canadian institutional repository or through a trusted Canadian platform

    You must ensure that your peer-reviewed research article is freely and immediately available in a Canadian institutional repository or made available through a trusted Canadian platform at the time of publication, even where the article is freely available on the publisher’s website.

    Check if your article will be available on a trusted Canadian platform

    If your OA article is freely available through a trusted Canadian platform at the time of publication, deposit in a Canadian institutional repository is not required.

    Trusted Canadian platforms include Canadian academic library journal hosting platforms, Érudit, the Public Knowledge Project’s Publishing Services, and Scholars Portal Journals. To be compliant with the policy, the article must be available in OA on one of these platforms, at the time of publication.

    Refer to the FAQ to determine whether the journal is included on a trusted Canadian platform. Your journal editor or publisher, or scholarly communication or research librarian, may also provide guidance.

    Depositing your article

    If your article is not available in OA through a trusted Canadian platform at the time of publication, you must deposit it in a Canadian institutional repository. The deposited version may be the accepted manuscript (AM) or the version of record (VoR).

    The Canadian Association of Research Libraries provides lists of institutional and adoptive repositories available across Canadian colleges and universities. Adoptive repositories welcome articles from researchers whose home institutions do not maintain repositories.

    The agencies encourage you to take the necessary steps to make your peer-reviewed research article accessible, barrier-free and easy to read to the widest possible audience (for example, people using assistive technologies, such as screen readers or keyboard navigation). For more information, contact your scholarly communication or research librarian and consult the Frequently Asked Questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Open access publications

  • 1. What is open access (OA) publishing and why is it important?

    OA publishing is the practice of providing free and unrestricted online access to research outputs, such as research articles/publications. This greater access is expected to accelerate the progress of research, democratize access to knowledge worldwide, and ensure that publicly funded research is available, at no extra charge, to the public.

    OA publishing makes it possible for research results to have a greater impact and enables researchers, scholars, clinicians, policymakers, the private sector, not-for-profit organizations and the public to use and build upon this knowledge. Enabling OA is a way to increase transparency, accountability and efficiency, and a way for the Agencies to align with the recommendations in the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).

  • 2. How do I know if a journal is open access (OA)?

    Most journals and publishers will have an OA policy posted on their website that authors may consult.

    You may also contact the journal editorial staff directly to verify the journal’s OA and copyright policies. Such policies may dictate which version of the article, whether the version of record (VoR) or the accepted manuscript (AM), you may deposit in a Canadian institutional repository. As specified in the Policy, rights retention applies to the accepted manuscript (AM). Refer to the FAQs on rights retention.

    The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) provides an extensive index of diverse OA journals from around the world.

  • 3. What is diamond open access (diamond OA)?

    Diamond OA refers to a community-driven, non-commercial model of scholarly publishing. Diamond OA completely removes author fees such as article processing charges (APCs), and subscription fees for readers, ensuring that monetary barriers to read or publish in the journal are removed. Instead, many diamond OA journals’ operations are funded by funders such as library consortia or national journal funding programs.

    The Agencies encourage authors to consider publishing in diamond OA journals, where possible.

  • 4. How can I find a diamond open access (diamond OA) journal?

    You may find many diamond OA journals on the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) by selecting the filter “journals without fees”. You may also check with your library, which may have internal resources available. Canadian diamond OA journals accept manuscripts for a wide range of subjects, many in both official languages. Many of the journals hosted on Érudit or published by Canadian academic library journal publishers or the Public Knowledge Project’s Publishing Services are diamond OA.

  • 5. What is predatory publishing and how can I avoid it?

    Predatory journals and publishers prioritize profit at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.

    The Agencies support scientific integrity and expect all researchers to publish in journals that uphold the best practices that underpin high-quality scholarly publication. Authors must practice due diligence before submitting a manuscript for publication and may recognize the following distinguishing features of predatory journals:

    • False or misleading information - for example, contradictory statements on the journal website or in emails, fake impact factors, incorrect addresses, misrepresentations of the editorial board, false claims of indexing or membership of associations, and misleading claims about the rigour of peer review;
    • Deviation from best editorial and publication practices - for example, not having a retraction policy, requesting a transfer of copyright when publishing an open-access article, and not specifying a Creative Commons license in an open-access journal;
    • Lack of transparency - for example, failing to provide contact information or details about article processing charges, and listing editors and members of editorial boards who are not verifiable; and
    • Aggressive, indiscriminate solicitation - such as repeated e-mails, which might be excessively flattering in tone, and might mention researchers’ past publications while noting that related submissions are urgently needed for a forthcoming issue.

    The following resources are available to assist you in your publishing choices and to guide the research community in adhering to reputable publishing practices:

  • 6. What should I do if my research involves sensitive information or considerations related to research security?

    The decision to publish research results is separate from, and precedes, compliance with this Policy. Researchers should first determine whether publication is appropriate, taking into account ethical, legal, cultural, commercial, intellectual property, privacy, research security, or other considerations that may require safeguards or may prevent publication.

    The Agencies are committed to the principle that research should be as open as possible and as secure as necessary. This means that researchers should maximize the sharing of research results by publishing them and/ or otherwise sharing them whenever possible while applying proportionate measures to protect sensitive information, participants, technologies, intellectual property, and other legitimate interests. In some circumstances, sensitive information may need to be withheld from publication, embargoed, or made available only through controlled access mechanisms. Researchers should work with their institutions and partners to determine the most appropriate approach to publishing, on a case-by-case basis, while maintaining compliance with applicable legal, ethical, contractual, and funding requirements.

    Examples of situations that may require additional safeguards to protect sensitive information include:

    • protecting participant privacy and consent;
    • respecting Indigenous data sovereignty and community agreements;
    • addressing ethical or legal obligations;
    • protecting patentable discoveries and intellectual property;
    • managing obligations associated with industry or international research partnerships; and
    • safeguarding information, technologies, or knowledge that could pose research security or national security concerns if openly disclosed.

    If a researcher decides to publish a peer-reviewed research article arising from Agency-funded grants or Chair awards, the Policy applies and the article must be immediately and freely available in a Canadian institutional repository or made available through a trusted Canadian platform.

    For more information, you may consult the Tri-agency guidance on research security and Tri-agency data retention, deposit and availability FAQ.

  • 7. How can I make my article more accessible?

    Advancing accessibility and disability inclusion are priorities for the Government of Canada. The Accessible Canada Act aims to make Canada barrier-free by January 1, 2040. This goal will not be achieved by the Government of Canada alone; it will take contributions from everyone, and everyone will have a unique role to play in identifying, removing and preventing barriers.

    As an author, you may consider what you can do to reduce accessibility barriers experienced by your readers. For example, you may organize your information in a way that will make sense to the reader, make your content easy to navigate, make your content easy to read and easy on the eyes of the reader, and add alternative text to visual elements.

    The Agencies will engage with individuals and institutions to promote the use of accessible and machine-readable formats and to reduce other barriers to accessibility for both readers and users of repository platforms (see: Tri-Agency Statement: Strengthening Open Access to Canadian Research Publications).

    Check with your institution’s scholarly communication or research librarian or accessibility services office to find out more about accessibility tools and resources.

    Helpful links

Institutional Open Access strategies

  • 8. What is an institutional open access (OA) strategy?

    An institutional OA strategy describes how the institution will provide its researchers with an environment that enables and supports OA practices. Developing these strategies may help research institutions identify and address gaps and challenges in infrastructure, resources, and practices related to OA. An institutional OA strategy supports the successful implementation of the Policy and is not a requirement for an institutional OA policy.

    Each strategy may reflect the institution’s particular circumstances, including size and capacity, geography, available infrastructure, and other contextual factors. The strategy may require input from various institutional units such as the administrative research office, library services, IT services, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) office, departments, and faculties. Institutions may wish to update their existing OA strategies to reflect the requirements of the revised Policy.

  • 9. Why are the Agencies requiring institutions to develop and post an institutional open access (OA) strategy?

    Research institutions have a significant role in supporting OA and supporting their researchers to comply with the Policy. Developing an OA strategy provides institutions with an opportunity to think through where gaps exist and how to address them from an institutional perspective and drive meaningful engagement within institutions, enabling collaboration across the administration (e.g., Vice-Presidents of Research), libraries, research offices, IT, and other partners. OA strategies allow institutions to develop solutions that work for them (for example, article deposit and OA infrastructure), while encouraging alignment and collaboration with other institutions. The information in these institutional strategies is intended to help the Canadian research community and funders gain a better understanding of OA capacity across the country. Institutional OA strategies are a mandatory element of the policy. The Agencies will not be formally evaluating the strategies but will be using them to identify gaps in existing services and infrastructure.

  • 10. What items may be included in an institutional OA strategy?

    The Agencies will be working with partners to develop resources to help institutions create their institutional strategies, including a strategy template.

    The Agencies recognize that each strategy will reflect the institution’s particular circumstances—for example, institution size, research intensity, and existing OA capacity. In all cases, high-quality strategies outline how the institution will provide its researchers with an equitable and inclusive environment that enables and supports OA. Strategies may include items such as:

    • committing to the adoption of established best practices and standards when developing institutional standards and policies for OA;
    • committing to the intentional design and adoption of practices that further equitable and inclusive open access for all people in Canada
    • guiding their researchers on how to properly retain their rights and apply a license to their work to deposit their peer-reviewed journal publications in a repository;
    • promoting the availability of findings resulting from publicly funded research to the widest possible audience at the earliest possible opportunity;
    • providing, or supporting access to, repository services that meet accessibility standards and/or requirements to securely preserve, curate and provide appropriate access to research publications;
    • recognizing and rewarding strong open science practices, in leadership and training;
    • recognizing authors’ rights to publish and communicate the results of their research using the avenue of their choice;
    • recognizing the importance of diamond OA, community-led publishing and open infrastructure in creating a sustainable and collaborative national research ecosystem;
    • recognizing the importance of research by and with Indigenous rightsholders being shared in ways that are culturally relevant, in Indigenous or local languages, and in formats that are useful and practical to these communities;
    • supporting authors’ use of public funding for publication in a way that maximizes its benefit for the public good, including cost-effectiveness;
    • supporting academic library-hosted journals as a component of institutional OA infrastructure, including ensuring that such journals meet recognized preservation requirements for long-term access, integrity, and discoverability of scholarly content;
    • supporting the adoption of accessibility standards and best practices in repository infrastructure and OA publishing (for example, ensuring deposited articles are accessible to users with print disabilities);
    • supporting the effective dissemination of research results to potential users in both official languages, particularly in situations where official language minority communities are directly relevant, as well as in other languages where applicable, to maximize impact (for example, providing repository services, and ensuring the discoverability of deposited content in both official languages, where possible); and
    • supporting the research community’s high standards of peer review in scholarly publishing, responsible research assessment, and responsible conduct of research.

    Institutions are encouraged to regularly review and revise their OA strategies where appropriate, as OA services, infrastructure, and practices evolve.

Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (2026) requirements

  • 11. What prompted the revision of the Policy?

    Rapid changes in research assessment standards, rising costs for publishing, and evolving international OA and open science policies have all guided the Agencies’ approach to promoting and supporting research, research training and knowledge mobilization and innovation within Canada, including OA to research publications. Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) considerations have also informed the Policy revision.

  • 12. Which version of the Open Access (OA) Policy applies in my case?
    • If your research article results from a CIHR grant awarded between January 1, 2008, and April 30, 2015: you must comply with the CIHR OA Policy.
    • If your research article results from a CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC grant awarded between May 1, 2015, and December 31, 2026: you must comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (2015).

    For all CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC grants and Chairs awarded from January 1, 2027, and onward: you must comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (2026).

    We encourage all Canadian researchers, regardless of funding support, to abide by the 2026 Policy to further advance the broad dissemination and open exchange of research results.

  • 13. Do co-authored papers, or research that has multiple funding sources need to comply with the Policy?

    If an agency grant or Chairholder award provides funding, in whole or in part, for research resulting in a peer-reviewed research article, the publication must comply with the Policy.

  • 14. What is rights retention?

    Rights retention is a publishing strategy that protects author’s legal rights over their academic work, particularly the right to control how their peer-reviewed research articles are shared, distributed, and reused. In the context of the Policy, rights retention is intended to allow peer-reviewed research articles resulting from agency-funded grants or Chair awards to be immediately and openly available at the time of publication, under an open license.

  • 15. What if my institution has a rights retention policy?

    Some Canadian postsecondary institutions have an institutional rights retention policy. Recognizing that both the Agencies’ and institutional rights retention aim to ensure that you preserve legal rights over your own publications, institutional rights retention policies will prevail over the Agencies’ rights retention, so long as these allow grantees and Chairholders to fulfill their obligations under the Policy.

    We encourage you to contact your scholarly communication or research librarian to determine if your institution has a rights retention policy and obtain further information. For information, the Open Scholarship Policy Observatory at the University of Victoria provides a list of Canadian institutions that have adopted OA statements or policies.

  • 16. Are there costs associated with complying with the Policy?

    Many journals allow authors to deposit their peer-reviewed research articles in an institutional repository at the time of publication at no additional cost to the researcher. The existing Canadian institutional repositories are essential in preserving and making available the knowledge generated by academic institutions.

    With respect to journal articles that are published immediately open access (OA) in journals that charge article processing charges (APCs), these charges remain an eligible cost under the Tri-Agency Guide on Financial Administration (TAGFA). We respect the author’s right to publish and communicate the results of their agency-funded research using the dissemination avenues of their choice, within the mandate of the Policy. We encourage the consideration of no-cost options, such as publishing in a diamond OA journal.

  • 17. Can I publish in a subscription journal with an embargo period?

    Publishing in a subscription journal with an embargo is allowed, as long as you retain your rights and you deposit your peer-reviewed research article in a Canadian institutional repository at the time of publication. The deposited article must be immediately available, with no embargo period, under an open license.

  • 18. How can I find out if an article will be available through a trusted Canadian platform at the time of publication?

    Research articles hosted in open access (OA) on a trusted Canadian platform including a Canadian academic library journal hosting platform, Érudit,the Public Knowledge Project’s (PKP) Publishing Services or Scholars Portal Journals, are compliant with the Policy. Only journals hosted on PKP servers in Canada are compliant with the Policy; it is not sufficient for a journal to use Open Journal Systems software. Research articles on any of these platforms that are not in OA are not compliant and must be deposited in an institutional repository.

    Search for the journal title on Érudit or in Scholars Portal Journals to check if your article will be available in immediate OA. If the journal title is found, check for an unlock symbol or OA label next to the journal title or article or if you can access the most recent articles without a subscription or institutional login. An unlock symbol or OA label next to the journal title or article means that the journal content or article is available in OA. It remains the author’s responsibility to communicate with the journal editor or publisher to ensure the article is published in immediate OA.

    To check if your article will be available in immediate OA in a Canadian academic library or by the Public Knowledge Project’s Publishing Services, contact the journal editor.

    Some of the Canadian postsecondary institutions whose libraries host journal publishing platforms include the University of Alberta, Université du Québec à Montréal, Queen’s University, Université Laval and The University of British Columbia.

    If you have questions about other Canadian platforms, please contact the Agency that funded your research.

  • 19. Have the Agencies communicated the Policy requirements to publishers directly?

    The Agencies posted a public letter informing publishers of grantee and Chairholder requirements under the Policy. You may find it helpful to reference this letter in your communications with publishers.

Depositing peer-reviewed research articles in a repository

  • 20. What is an institutional repository?

    An institutional repository is a digital collection of an organization’s intellectual output. Institutional repositories are essential in preserving and making available the knowledge generated by academic institutions and offering protection against losing access to articles should journals close or become un-operational.

    Several university libraries act as “adoptive repositories” and welcome articles from researchers whose home institutions do not maintain repositories. Some of these libraries provide this service only to researchers within their province or region, while other libraries provide this service to any researcher in Canada.

    For more information, consult the Canadian Association of Research Libraries Institutional Repositories.

  • 21. Who is responsible for depositing a publication in a Canadian institutional repository?

    The grant recipient or Chairholder is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Policy, including depositing the article in a Canadian institutional repository where necessary. Grant recipients or Chairholders may consult with their scholarly communication or research librarians for support and resources on deposit.

Monitoring and reporting

  • 22. How will the Agencies monitor and report on the performance of the Policy?

    As the Policy is implemented, we will monitor and report in aggregate on Canadian-authored, peer-reviewed scholarly articles that are available in open access (OA), and on agency-funded peer-reviewed scholarly articles that are available in OA.

  • 23. What if one of my peer-reviewed research articles is not compliant with the Policy?

    Failure to comply with any agency policy throughout the life cycle of a research project (from application for funding, to the conduct of the research and the dissemination of research results) is a breach of the Responsible Conduct of Research Framework.

Open access resources

Repositories and trusted Canadian platforms

  • Canadian Institutional Repositories – information published by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) on publicly available Canadian institutional repositories and platforms
  • Canadian Library Journal Publishing: A Primer - provides a brief introduction to Canadian library publishing and articulates the role of library publishers in disseminating Canadian scholarship and furthering Open Access
  • Érudit - a Pan-Canadian inter-university consortium that provides a journal dissemination platform
  • Federal Open Science Repository of Canada (FOSRC) - provides public, web-based access to federally authored scientific articles and publications from participating science-based departments and agencies
  • Public Knowledge Project - a research and development initiative within Simon Fraser University’s Core Facilities Program that conducts research, develops free/open source software, and works to increase the quality, diversity, and accessibility of scholarly publishing
  • Scholars Portal Journals – a Canadian national repository of scholarly articles from journals covering every academic discipline, and a Trustworthy Digital Repository (TDR) for long-term preservation

Open access resources and directories

Contact us

For more information on open access and Policy requirements, contact:

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