University of Alberta
AC-11: Open Access to Research

OPEN ACCESS POLICY The University of Alberta implemented the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications in May 2015, when it was introduced by the Canadian federal government. The Tri-Agency Open Access Policy mandates open access to research articles funded by Canada's three major research agencies: the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The policy stipulates that peer-reviewed journal articles produced from funded research must be made open access within 12 months of publication in an open access journal or archived in a subject repository or institutional repository. FINANCIAL SUPPORTS In 2016, the University of Alberta's financial support for open access amounted to $52,000. University of Alberta Libraries (UAL) provides financial support through staff dedicated to open access who are tasked with providing open access related support and curation for UAlberta researchers and authors. They also provide outreach and education to UAlberta staff on open access. UAL maintains an active journal publishing service that includes software hosting and maintenance, technical and administrative support, and professional publishing services such as digital preservation of content and assignment of digital object identifiers (https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca). Launched in 2006, this service is home to more than 40 open access peer-reviewed journals and is one of the largest open access library publishing services in Canada. This service is provided at no cost to journals and authors are never charged submission fees for publication. Quantification of this broad class of financial support is difficult to accomplish (https://library.ualberta.ca/research-support/open-access/how-do-i-publish-oa). REPOSITORIES UAL develops, supports and administers the University of Alberta’s institutional repository, the Education and Research Archive (ERA) (https://era.library.ualberta.ca), which shares more than 40,000 open access items including journal articles, technical papers, working paper series, conference presentations, reports, and data collections. Launched in January of 2010, the ERA is also home to the university’s graduate student theses and dissertations, over 19,000 of which are openly available online. All theses and dissertations granted by the University of Alberta must be made publicly available through the ERA according to the policy of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. UAL dedicates staff to conduct copyright investigations and deposit works to ERA on behalf of faculty, removing one of the most significant barriers for researchers to share their work. In addition to and providing free online access to many of the important research discoveries made at the university, the technical and service infrastructure UAL has created directly supports researchers’ compliance with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications. These policies are as follows: 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 two routes: 1. Online Repositories - Researchers can deposit their final, peer-reviewed manuscript into an institutional or disciplinary repository that will make the manuscript freely accessible within 12 months of publication. It is the responsibility of the grant recipient to determine which publishers allow authors to retain copyright and/or allow authors to archive journal publications in accordance with funding agency policies. 2. Journals - Grant recipients can publish in a journal that offers immediate open access or that offers open access on its website within 12 months. Some journals require authors to pay article processing charges (APCs) to make manuscripts freely available upon publication. The cost of publishing in open access journals is an eligible expense under the Use of Grant Funds. More info: https://library.ualberta.ca/research-support/publishing-support/ https://www.ualberta.ca/graduate-studies/about/graduate-program-manual/section-8-supervision-oral-examinations-and-program-completion/8-4-thesis-requirements

Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications 1. Preamble The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (“the Agencies”) are federal granting agencies that promote and support research, research training and innovation within Canada. As publicly funded organizations, the Agencies have a fundamental interest in promoting the availability of findings that result from the research they fund, including research publications and data, to the widest possible audience, and at the earliest possible opportunity. Societal advancement is made possible through widespread and barrier-free access to cutting-edge research and knowledge, enabling researchers, scholars, clinicians, policymakers, private sector and not-for-profit organizations and the public to use and build on this knowledge. Information and communications technology, and in particular the advent of the internet, has transformed the way that science and scholarly research is conducted and communicated. Indicative of this changing landscape has been the steady growth in open access publishing and archiving, which facilitates widespread dissemination of research results. Open access enables researchers to make their publications freely available to the domestic and international research community and to the public at large, thereby enhancing the use, application and impact of research results. Momentum for open access has been growing as numerous funding agencies and institutions worldwide implement open access policies. The Agencies strongly support open access to research results which promotes the principle of knowledge sharing and mobilization – an essential objective of academia. As research and scholarship become increasingly multi-disciplinary and collaborative, both domestically and internationally, the Agencies are working to facilitate research partnerships by harmonizing domestic policies and aligning with the global movement to open access. The following principles guide the Agencies in their approach to promoting open access to research publications: •Committing to academic freedom, and the right to publish; •Recognizing the critical importance of peer review to the scholarly communication ecosystem; •Maintaining the high standards and quality of research by committing to academic openness and responsible conduct of research; •Promoting recognized research best practices and standards across disciplines, and embracing and sharing emerging practices and standards; •Advancing academic research, science and innovation; •Effective dissemination of research results; and •Aligning activities and policies between Canadian and international research funding agencies. 2. Policy Objective The objective of this policy is to improve access to the results of Agency-funded research, and to increase the dissemination and exchange of research results. All researchers, regardless of funding support, are encouraged to adhere to this policy. 3. Policy Statement 3.1 Peer-reviewed Journal 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: a.Online Repositories Grant recipients can deposit their final, peer-reviewed manuscript into an institutional or disciplinary repository that will make the manuscript freely accessible within 12 months of publication. It is the responsibility of the grant recipient to determine which publishers allow authors to retain copyright and/or allow authors to archive journal publications in accordance with funding agency policies. b.Journals Grant recipients can publish in a journal that offers immediate open access or that offers open access on its website within 12 months. Some journals require authors to pay article processing charges (APCs) to make manuscripts freely available upon publication. The cost of publishing in open access journals is an eligible expense under the Use of Grant Funds. These routes to open access are not mutually exclusive. Researchers are strongly encouraged to deposit a copy of the final, peer-reviewed manuscript into an accessible online repository immediately upon publication, even if the article is freely available on the journal’s website. Grant recipients must acknowledge Agency contributions in all peer-reviewed publications, quoting the funding reference number (e.g. FRN, Application ID). 3.2 Publication-related Research Data CIHR only Recipients of CIHR funding are required to adhere with the following responsibilities: •Deposit bioinformatics, atomic, and molecular coordinate data into the appropriate public database (e.g. gene sequences deposited in GenBank) immediately upon publication of research results. Please refer to the Annex for examples of research outputs and the corresponding publicly accessible repository or database. •Retain original data sets for a minimum of five years after the end of the grant (or longer if other policies apply).This applies to all data, whether published or not. The grant recipient's institution and research ethics board may have additional policies and practices regarding the preservation, retention, and protection of research data that must be respected. 4. Implementation Date CIHR For research funded in whole or in part by CIHR, this policy applies to all grants awarded January 1, 2008 and onward. While not required, researchers holding grants that were awarded prior to January 1, 2008 are encouraged to adhere to the requirements of this policy. NSERC and SSHRC For research funded in whole or in part by NSERC or SSHRC, this policy applies to all grants awarded May 1, 2015 and onward. While not required, researchers holding grants that were awarded prior to May 1, 2015 are encouraged to adhere to the requirements of this policy. 5. Compliance with the Policy Grant recipients are reminded that by accepting Agency funds they have accepted the terms and conditions of the grant or award as set out in the Agencies’ policies and guidelines. In the event of an alleged breach of Agency policy, the Agency may take steps outlined in accordance with the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research to deal with the allegation. For research funded by the Agencies, the Institution shall enable researchers to comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Publication Policy, as amended from time to time. 6. Policy Review The Agencies will review and adapt this policy as appropriate.

UAL has built significantly on the success of ERA with other repositories for specific formats and kinds of materials. For example, UAL recently developed and launched ERA A+V (https://era-av.library.ualberta.ca/), an audio / video streaming service that allows open A/V research materials to be easily viewed and embedded in publications and course management software. UAL also helps researchers share their research data openly via Dataverse, an online data management and dissemination tool (https://dataverse.library.ualberta.ca/dvn/). As open data policies become increasingly more common, University of Alberta researchers will be extremely well-positioned to meet these important mandates of government and funding agencies. UAL has a firm, longstanding and demonstrated commitment to the creation, preservation, and dissemination of open access works and open source software. Librarians and staff of UAL are highly skilled experts in many of the complex issues surrounding open access, and they provide advice and training on all aspects of open access publishing to faculty in specific disciplines. UAL has focused many of its efforts on creating sustainable shared infrastructure and partnerships that benefit not just the faculty and students, but contribute more broadly to supporting open access nationally and internationally, taking a leadership role in open access program and service development. Beyond Edmonton and Alberta, UAL is committed to furthering the principles of open access in Canada and internationally. ERA, Dataverse, and UAL’s journal hosting service are all available at no cost to Canadian researchers without access to local repositories or publishing solutions. UAL is also recognized nationally for its leadership in developing and supporting the open source software that provides the technical infrastructure that enables openly sharing items online. UAL’s Digital Initiatives Team and Information Technology Services unit contribute significantly to open software projects through formal development partnerships with Hydra /Samvera (creating an open source repository framework) and the Public Knowledge Project (creating open source publishing tools).

Content Expert: Leah Vanderjagt Digital Repository Services Coordinator University of Alberta