“Open access to peer-reviewed research articles enables public, private and not-for-profit sectors, as well as the general public, to use and build upon research findings, ultimately maximizing the impacts of research investments.”

The Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications applies to peer-reviewed journal publications resulting from Agency-supported research, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Grants awarded from May 2015 to December 31, 2026

Peer-reviewed journal publications must be freely accessible within 12 months of publication.

You can meet this requirement by:

  • depositing the final peer-reviewed manuscript in an institutional or disciplinary repository; and/or
  • publishing in a journal that provides immediate open access or makes the article open access within 12 months.

Before submitting an article to a journal, check the journal's self-archiving policy or ask the Libraries for help determining whether the journal permits repository deposit.

Grants and Chair awards awarded on or after January 1, 2027

Peer-reviewed research articles must be immediately and freely available in a Canadian institutional repository (e.g., eScholarship@McGill) 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. The article must be immediately available with no embargo period.

The version deposited may be either the Accepted Manuscript (AM) or the Version of Record (VoR).

Authors must retain sufficient rights and apply an open license, such as a Creative Commons (CC) license, to the AM and/or VoR used to comply with the policy. The Agencies strongly encourage authors to use the least restrictive license, preferably CC-BY, wherever possible.

What if my publisher does not allow rights retention or immediate open access?

In cases where the journal and/or publisher questions authors about retaining rights over the content of their article and making the Accepted Manuscript or Version of Record open access in a repository at the time of publication, authors should contact the agency that funded the research to determine the author’s options to comply with the Policy.

Further information