Publishing grant-funded research articles in cIRcle : The Green Open Access Route

Aerial view of a green hedge maze.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

What is the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications?

If you have received a grant in the last ten years you likely will be familiar with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications.

Released in May 2015, the policy affects the three major grant-funding agencies in Canada: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). The current policy is under revision with the most recent draft released in February 2025.

This policy applies to you if you have:

Received a grant from one of the Tri-Agencies
Published peer-reviewed journal publications arising from grant-funded research

The requirements of the policy are simple but involve planning and research:

Make a copy of the peer-reviewed journal publication openly accessible by:
- Publishing in a journal that supports open access AND/OR
- Depositing in an Institutional Repository such as cIRcle

Conditions to note:

The publication must be made openly available within 12 months of publication
Acceptable versions are the published version (or version of record) OR the peer-reviewed author’s accepted manuscript.

If you have questions about how to fulfill the conditions of the current policy as a UBC author, you will find answers below to help navigate this process.

Do I have to pay for open access?

Some journals require authors to pay article processing charges (APCs) to make manuscripts freely available upon publication. Journal open access fees can cost thousands of dollars—as of this writing the fee for publishing immediate open access in the journal Nature is $12,690.

Like many academic institutions, UBC offers a number of supports to authors navigating the open access landscape. Visit the Scholarly Communications & Copyright Office’s website for a comprehensive list of services and guides: The Tri-Agency Open Access Policy: How UBC Library Can Help.

There is also a free path to publishing open access in an Institutional Repository commonly referred to as “Green Open Access“. However, there is some effort involved if you want to avoid paying open access fees.

How can I deposit my article in cIRcle free of charge?

There are only four main steps involved in depositing your grant-funded research article in cIRcle, but how easy you find them can depend on a number of factors including the publisher you choose to work with and your own publication habits:

Check permissions
Find the permitted version and apply conditions
Complete the Item Submission Form
Share your work!

Check permissions

Are you familiar with your journal’s self-archiving policies? Most publishers grant certain rights to authors that may allow them to share a version of their article free of charge even if the author has signed copyright over to the journal.

UBC’s Author’s Guide to Self-archiving, Publication Versions and Permissions provides a helpful overview of terms and principles to get you started.

If you know you have to publish an open access copy of your article, best practice is to investigate your publisher’s self-archiving policies before you work with them.

Already published your article and need to make it openly available? You’ll need to do some research to find out if you can deposit in an Institutional Repository and under what conditions.

You can do this by using one or a combination of the following methods:

- Consulting the copyright transfer agreement you signed;
- Searching for your journal in Open Policy Finder and using their digest and policy links to identify permissions;
- Navigating directly to your publisher’s website for their green open access or sharing policies. See Elsevier’s sharing policy as an example.

Find the permitted version and apply conditions

You’ve found your publisher’s self-archiving policy and confirmed you can deposit a copy of your article in an Institutional Repository. Now you need to identify the conditions for doing this without paying a fee.

What version can I deposit?

Finding the correct permitted version is often the biggest hurdle authors face when trying to self-archive an article.

Most publishers will only permit free self-archiving of the Author’s Accepted Manuscript version (aka AAM or AM). This is the post-peer review, final version with all edits and comments resolved and is sometimes referred to as a postprint. No publisher copyediting, logos, or formatting should be included.

Below are some common version pitfalls and suggestions for avoiding them:

I don’t know which is the correct version:

Author’s Accepted Manuscript versions often have line numbers or look similar to the version of the article you submitted to be considered for publication. The key difference is that the AM version has incorporated all the edits following peer-review so the intellectual content is essentially the same as the content you see when the article is published.
Take a moment to review this example of an AM in cIRcle. Now compare it to a published version of a different article. Note how the AM has no publisher branding but the published version looks exactly the same as you would see it on the publisher’s website.

I didn’t keep the author’s accepted manuscript version:

If you are not the first author or corresponding author, there is a chance this person has a copy of the final accepted version prior to publication that they can send you.
Get in the habit of always keeping or asking for a copy of the AM.

I can’t access the author’s accepted manuscript version:

Some publishers have automated systems so the only copy of the AM exists in the publisher’s submissions portal. Direct2AAM includes guides to downloading AM from several large publishers. If you don’t see your publisher listed, you can try the generic instructions or contact your publisher directly.
If it’s been longer than 3-5 years you may not be able to access the AM version anymore. Commit to depositing your articles in cIRcle as soon as possible to avoid disappointment in future.

What if my publisher requires an embargo?

Many publishers require an embargo period before you can make the author’s accepted manuscript version publicly available online. Embargo periods are typically between 12-36 months.

If your publisher requires an embargo period longer than 12 months, you will likely need to pay a fee to publish open access in order to meet the obligations of the Tri-Agency grant.

If the embargo period has already expired or will soon, you may have missed the policy window and should deposit your article right away.

You can deposit your article in cIRcle at any time regardless of embargo period.

What if my publisher requires a version statement?

Version statements are blocks of template text that identify the self-archived article as an author’s accepted manuscript. They typically include a citation to the published version.

For example, “This is the postprint version Accepted for publication to JOURNAL NAME on DD/MM/YYYY. The published version of this article is available at [citation including publisher DOI].”

You will typically find version statement templates on the publisher’s self-archiving policy page. Review the Wiley AM statement as an example.

These statements should appear on the lead page of an article and should be included prior to submitting your article to cIRcle.

What about Creative Commons Licensing?

All items added to cIRcle must include a Creative Commons License (CC license). CC licenses are crucial components of open access publishing because they make explicit how others can use and share your work.

Which CC license you choose may depend on your publisher. This example from Taylor & Francis details which CC license to apply to an author’s accepted manuscript according to their policy.

Take note! It is increasingly common for publishers to require authors to pay a fee in order to publish under a Creative Commons License. Springer is an example of a publisher that explicitly prohibits publishing under a CC License without paying a fee.

If your publisher doesn’t specify which CC license to choose, most authors prefer the most restrictive Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license. This license allows anyone to share your work, provided they credit you and don’t reuse your work for commercial purposes. This is the default cIRcle CC License.

Being able to add a CC license is a condition of depositing in cIRcle.

Complete the Item Submission Form

If you’ve successfully navigated publisher hurdles to depositing your article without paying a fee, the last step is simple. Fill out the cIRcle Item Submission form and we take care of the rest.

There are three main parts of the submission form:

- Complete the cIRcle Non-Exclusive Distribution License. You’ll be able to choose preferred Creative Commons License terms at this stage;
- Describe your article. Include the citation and any embargo information or other conditions;
- Upload your article file or follow the instructions for embargoed material.

What is the cIRcle Non-Exclusive Distribution License?

The cIRcle Non-Exclusive Distribution License gives cIRcle permission to make your work openly available under the policies and processes of the Institutional Repository.

The license asserts that you are the copyright holder or possess the necessary rights and permissions to share the work. You do not assign copyright to cIRcle.

Take note! Only authors can complete this form. Research or administrative assistants cannot do this on your behalf.

How do I describe my article?

Include the full citation for your work; an abstract if you want one to appear (recommended); and list any embargo period.

Review the following example of an Item Submission Form description:

Narayan, S., Klimas, J., DiMarco, D., Strydom, N., Maclure, M., & McCracken, R. K. (2024). Beyond Opioid Sparing: A Qualitative Study with Family Physicians and Nurse Practitioners in British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Addiction, 15(4), 23-31. 10.1097/cxa.0000000000000220

Embargo: 12 months. Expires 2025-12-31

Abstract: Several opioid prescribing initiatives have been recently evaluated including the Portrait letter program in British Columbia (BC). The experiences of primary care providers targeted by these programs have not been fully characterized. This qualitative study sought to examine barriers and facilitators to implementing prescribing Portraits with educational webinars on pain management with opioids in primary care.

How do I upload my file?

You can attach up to five files to the Item Submission Form. If you have very large files or embargoed articles, you’ll be directed to contact the cIRcle Office for a link to our Sharepoint site.

Share Your Work

cIRcle Office members review your Item Submission Form and email you if they have any questions. If all necessary information is included, we deposit the article in our repository software on your behalf.

You will receive an email notification with a persistent link to your article within 7-10 business days.

Use this link to share your article on your web page, CV, social media, and in your grant reports.

Congratulations on making your work open access!

Try it!

Look up Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies in the Open Policy Finder. Can you archive articles published in this journal in an Institutional Repository? If yes, under what conditions? Is there an embargo period? If there is a required version statement, can you locate it on the publisher’s website?

Need help?

Contact the cIRcle Office at circle.repository@ubc.ca. You can also explore our Submissions page for instructions on adding other material types to cIRcle.