Funding, News and Announcements

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is communicating important program updates to the Aid to Scholarly Journals (ASJ) funding opportunity.

As announced in December 2023, the ASJ is transitioning to support journals that will offer free and immediate open access (OA). This change aligns with the current review of the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications. The updated policy will require that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from agency-supported research be freely available at the time of publication. The transition of the ASJ will help support free and fast access to digitally published Canadian social sciences and humanities research results for readers throughout Canada and around the world.

Over the last two years, SSHRC engaged with the research community—including journal editors, librarians, scholarly publishing experts and other stakeholders—to ensure an effective, sustainable and equitable transition of the ASJ funding opportunity to immediate OA.

The transition of the ASJ takes an iterative approach, with changes being implemented gradually over the course of the 2025 and 2028 cycles. Key updates to the ASJ funding opportunity include an increase to available funding, moving from delayed to immediate OA, promoting digital publishing best practices, enhancing flexibility for distribution platform hosting fees and supporting emerging journals.

In addition, please note that the draft, revised Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications was released February 25, 2025. Feedback from the community is invited until March 31, 2025.

If you have questions, please contact scholarlyjournals@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca.