In developing its policy, CIHR struck a broadly representative national task force of leading researchers, chaired by Dr. James Till of the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. We consulted widely with Canadian researchers and stakeholders in government, research, publishing and the library communities. CIHR also looked to the experiences of funding agencies in other countries who have established similar policies. The consultation process was thorough and carefully planned in order to preserve academic freedom while promoting the value of public access. I want to thank all of those who provided their input into the policy and particularly want to thank all the members of the Till Committee for their outstanding work.
Under this new Policy, which will apply to all grants awarded after January 1, 2008 that receive funding in whole or in part from CIHR, grant recipients must make every effort to ensure that their peer-reviewed research articles are freely available as soon as possible after publication. This can be achieved by depositing the article in an archive, such as PubMed Central or an institutional repository, and/or by publishing results in an open access journal. A growing number of journals already meet these requirements and CIHR-funded researchers are encouraged to consider publishing in these journals.
Additionally, grant recipients are now required to deposit bioinformatics, atomic, and molecular coordinate data, as already required by most journals, into the appropriate public database immediately upon publication of research results.
This policy builds on other important initiatives to promote openness and transparency of CIHR-funded research such as the registration of clinical trials and randomized controlled trials.
The policy on Access to CIHR-funded Research Outputs is available online.
Dr. Alan Bernstein, O.C., FRSC
President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
For further information, please contact:
Geoff Hynes
Policy Advisor
Policy and International Relations
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Tel.: 613-952-8965
Fax: 613-946-0885
Email: geoff.hynes@cihr-irsc.gc.ca
