Open Access Toolkit

Why Open Access is Important to Practice
 

“Increasingly, funders are not only preferring but mandating open sharing of research...as well as [encouraging]
the  sharing of data, software and other research outputs...

Some funders, including the NIH and Wellcome Trust, have begun suspending or withholding funds if researchers
do not meet their policy requirements. Thus, researchers funded by a wide variety of sources will soon be not
just encouraged but required to engage in open practices to receive and retain funding.  Those already engaging
in these practices will likely have a competitive advantage”

McKiernan et al, eLife 2016;5:e16800.  DOI 10.7554/eLife.16800

As funding is increasingly tied to open practices, it is important to know whether your research needs to adhere to important requirements.  This section of the guide provides researchers with a number of tools they can use in order to learn about funder requirements.

Funder Policies re Open Access

In order to learn more about funder requirements, check out the sites listed below:

• Tri-Agency Open Access Policy

CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC have An Open Access Policy related to funding and obligations to ensure publications and Data is openly available within their estabalished parameters.
 

• SHERPA / JULIET

JULIET provides a summary of funder policies as they relate to grant awards and OA, Open Access Publishing, Open Access Archiving and Data Archiving.
 

• SHERPA / FACT Compliance Tool

Use this site to identify if a journal you wish to publish in complies with funder requirements for Open Access.

Funds for Article Processing Charges 
 

CRKN recently negotiated Transformative Agreements wtith several publishers.  This means Canadian Academics can immediately publish articles as Open Access with no charges.

Alternatively, Many funders - such as the TriAgency  - include money for Article Processing Charges (APCs)  that enable a researcher to pay the APC so  their article becomes Open Access.  If you have a grant, or about to apply for one, you will need to see if funds have been allocated for this purpose.
 

Additionally, check our the BURC Knowledge Mobilization fund designed to support Article Processing Fees for Brandon University Researchers.

Can I publish in Open Access without paying APCs?.

Indeed you can.  Your options include:

• Identifying Platinum open access journals or open access consortium like SCOAP3 (for Particle Physics) or the Open Library for the Humanities. 
   
• Self archiving your research by:
  • First checking on the self-Archiving policies of any journal you wish to publish in.
     
  • If not identified, use the CARL / SPARC Author Addendum to specify self-archiving as a right you are asserting.  You would have the publisher agree to this before agreeing to publish in their journal.
     
  • finally identify which Institutional Repository or subject a Repository you wish to contribute your research to.
    • Note: If in the process of your research you collect data that you want/need to make openly available, you will need to find a Data Repository for it.
       
    • Note:If you created a learning object you wish to share you may want to deposit it in an Open Educational Resources Repository or release it with a Creative Commons license in places like YouTube, etc.
       
• Submitting articles to publishers with whom we have a Read and Publish Agreement.  Currently this is with Sage Publishing, but it should expand over time.