Open Access: Home

An introductory guide to Open Access (OA) information and resources.

Canadian Funders' Policies on OA

Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications

Grant recipients are required to ensure that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research are freely accessible within 12 months of publication. Recipients can do this through one of the following routes:

Online Repositories
Journals

NSERC & SSHRC: This policy applies to all grants awarded May 1, 2015 and onward.

CIHR: This policy applies to all grants awarded January 1, 2008 and onward. CIHR grant recipients have additional responsibilities to make their research data publicly available (see the link above for more details).

Link to policy statement.

Link to the policy FAQs.

Open Access is...

Open access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. What makes it possible is the internet and the consent of the copyright holder.

What is Open Access?

From Peter Suber's A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access:

PDF of this handout.

Definitions of OA

The BBB statements - considered to be the landmark definitions of the open access movement.

Who to Contact

Please contact your liaison librarian for additional support.

This guide was created, and is maintained by DeDe Dawson, Science & Scholarly Communication Librarian.