The Tri-Agencies are federal granting agencies that promote and support research, research training and innovation within Canada. The Tri-Agencies are:

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

Their Open Access policy is designed to improve access to the results of Agency-funded research, and to increase the dissemination and exchange of research results. Recipients of these grants are required to ensure that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research are freely accessible within a year of publication. To do this, grant recipients can either add the final, peer-reviewed manuscript to an institutional or disciplinary repository that will make the manuscript freely accessible within a year of publication; or recipients can publish in a journal that offers immediate open access or that offers open access on its website within a year. The Tri-Agencies strongly encourage recipients to add their manuscripts to an open access online repository immediately upon publication.

For more information, read the entire Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (2015) or browse their Frequently Asked Questions pag

NEW  Draft, Revised Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (2026)

The revised Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.  However, researchers are encouraged to adopt the revisions as soon as possible.  The Library will be working on processes to assist researchers with meeting these new requirements.  In the meantime, please contact Heather Empey with any questions.

Requirements:

• Agency grantees and chairholders must acknowledge Agency contributions in all research outputs, including but not limited to peer-reviewed research articles, that were funded, in whole or in part, by the Agency, quoting the funder name and funding reference number (e.g., FRN, Application ID). Further details describing funder acknowledgement requirements will be provided in the final Policy.

• Agency grantees and chairholder award recipients must deposit their research article in a Canadian institutional repository at the time of publication, even where the article is freely available on the publisher website. The version deposited may be either the version of record (VoR) or author-accepted manuscript (AAM) and must be deposited under an open license (Creative Commons or equivalent).

• The Agencies have implemented a rights retention strategy to facilitate compliance with this policy at no additional cost to the researcher. By accepting the Terms and Conditions of their grant or award, grantees and chairholders must retain rights over the dissemination of any peer-reviewed research article arising from agency-funded research. Researchers are asked to inform the publisher and/or journal of their obligations and rights under the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications when submitting their article for publication. Instructions and a template letter will be provided, linked to the final Policy.

• In cases where authors are prohibited by the journal and/or publisher from depositing the VoR or AAM in a repository at the time of publication, preprints deposited under an open license will be accepted as compliant with this policy. Preprints should be marked as “unrefereed version”. 

The following list is from Mount Allison Libraries Open Access Guide. These considerations can be used to evaluate both OA and non-OA journals.

1. Who sent you this call for articles?  If it came from a stranger, you may wish to be more thorough in your evaluation of this publication. If it was sent to you by a friend or colleague, ask them what experience they have with this journal, and if they can vouch for its publishing standards.
2. Who is the publisher? Is there full, verifiable contact information on their website? No address given on the website or misleading information about the country of origin are red flags.
3. What is the publisher's mandate? Not-for-profit publishers are more likely to have the advancement of scholarship as a motive than making a profit.
4. What is this journal/publisher's reputation among your peers? Is this journal recognized by your peers as being reliable and relevant to your area of research?
5. Has this publisher/journal been identified as questionable by others? A quick online search may bring up exchanges about specific journals and publishers. See also the list of suspected predatory journals and publishers by U. of Colorado librarian, Jeffrey Beall at:  http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/
6. For open access (OA) journals, is the publisher a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)? This organization is a recognized advocate and promoter of OA publishing and has produced a Code of Conduct for OA publishers. However, newer publishers may not yet be included, and OASPA membership alone may not be sufficient to ascertain reliability.
7. Does the publisher have an archiving or preservation policy? Examples of established archiving services include Portico or LOCKSS.
8. Is the OA journal listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)? Journals are required to meet a certain number of criteria in order to be included in the DOAJ (see selection criteria). In addition, the DOAJ announced in 2013 that it will add a "DOAJ Seal" for those with the highest standards, which will be a helpful tool in assessing journals. Note: There is a delay for new journals to be added to the DOAJ.
9. Does the journal have an impact factor? How high is the impact factor? The most common impact factor is from Thompson-Reuters' Journal Citation Reports, but there are others, such as the Eigenfactor and the SCImago Journal Rank indicator. Impact factors are produced using several years' data, so these will not be available for newer journals. While the value of impact factors in general is debatable, beware of false metrics. See Beall's list of Misleading Metrics.
10. What peer review measures are in place for this journal?  The peer review process should be described on the journal's website, and should be consistent with the usual process in your field. In the case of a newer journal, you may want to contact members of the editorial board to ask about their peer review process.
11. How qualified is the editorial board of the journal?  The journal's website should list the members of its editorial board, as well as their academic credentials and affiliations. You should be able to verify that these people are credible editors for this discipline. (There have been cases where individuals have been added to a list of editors without their consent.)
12. Is the journal indexed in major databases or index services? The journal's articles should be indexed in Web of Science or in your field's respected indexes (e.g. PubMed, CINAHL, ERIC, MLA International Bibliography). Inclusion in Google Scholar should not be taken as an indication of reliability. If the journal's website does not include this information, you can check Ulrich's Periodical Directory in the library reference section (Z 6941 .U55 REF).
13. How many issues have been published since the journal started? The journal's publication record should be consistent and reliable.
14. What is the journal's acceptance procedure? How long did it take for the journal to accept your paper for publication? (Immediate acceptance may be cause for concern.)
15. Are the articles in the journal of the calibre you would expect? Are they on-topic? Are the article topics appropriate for the journal's thematic scope? Is the writing at the level that you would expect for a scholarly journal? Who are the authors? Are they all from the same institution or a small group? Have these articles been cited by reputable authors in reputable journals? (Citation counts can be checked in Web of Science and Google Scholar.)