Thanks for the Listserv, Rick, and thanks to Elaine for bringing forward the "policy goal" of the Canadian research funding agencies to the listserv. It would be great for the proposal to get some international attention. Nod to Glenn.

The existing policy of SSHRC, one of the three research funding agencies, is delayed open access (of 12 months) for all peer reviewed content in a journal that receives their support. Under the names of the Presidents of the three agencies, the agencies are proposing to require immediate OA for research they fund. Hard to say if it will be added to current policy or become a replacement policy.

As Elaine says, they seem to be headed in the direction of Diamond OA but they have put nothing on the table with regard to funding. Current funding is in the neighbourhood of $1200 per article so the diamond in the equation may be chipped, flawed, and/or unpolished.

Until some money is on the table, the aim of immediate OA hovers as a potential threat to Canada's subscription-based journals as it would severely hamper earning income by means of subscriptions and possibly create a tiering effect by supporting articles reporting on funded research but not articles that are based on non-funded research. In Canadian social science and humanities journals often up to about 80% of published articles are based on non-funded research.

Another thing worth knowing is that the province of Quebec is trying to implement OA policies consistent with COAlition S (although probably not the latest iteration of their policies). The sense I get is that the feds want to use their implementation as a foundation for federal policy implementation.

Reading between the lines, the reference to UNESCO policy is Canadian code for "adhering to international standards." Canadians like that as opposed to our being seen as taking bold steps on our own based on domestic interests and analysis. 

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