The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the federal government's health research granting agency, today unveiled a new open access policy for research it funds beginning in 2008.  According to the new policy, researchers will be required to make every effort to ensure that their peer-reviewed publications are freely accessible through the Publisher’s website or an online repository within six months of publication. Critics will rightly note that the policy is not iron-clad – publication in an online repository is conditional on the publisher's policy.  Accordingly, if a publisher refuses to allow researchers to post their articles, the researcher does not violate the grant requirements by not posting.  This leaves publishers with a measure of control, though a growing number of them do permit this form of archiving (database of publisher policies here).

While it is tempting to say that this does not go far enough, it is an exceptionally important development for open access in Canada. 

Read more ›