Funding Opportunities
Aid to Open-Access Research Journals
Context
Objectives
Description
Value and Duration
Eligibility
Evaluation and Adjudication
Administrative Regulations
More Information
Context
SSHRC recognizes that the peer-reviewed scholarly journal is a primary tool for fostering intellectual debate and inquiry. Today, new information and communications technologies are beginning to change the way research results are published and disseminated. Open-access journals, published online and made available to the reader without charge, are allowing for increased and more broad-based and efficient access to scholarly literature, and, ultimately, knowledge.
SSHRC welcomes this change and, through this Aid to Open-Access Research Journals program, will contribute to maximizing the national and international impact of advanced scholarship in the social sciences and humanities
Objectives
The objectives of this program are to:
- assist journals offering barrier-free access to peer-reviewed scholarship in the social sciences and humanities;
- increase readership, both nationally and internationally, for research journals that publish original scholarship in the social sciences and humanities;
- allow SSHRC to test a new funding model and approach to adjudicating grant applications from research journals, in preparation for the revised research journals support program, which will be launched in 2008-09.
This new funding model uses the scholarly article as its base unit. SSHRC recognizes that it is primarily by way of scholarly articles that intellectual debate and inquiry are fostered. It also recognizes that an electronic journal’s total operating expenses are, in large part, directly related to the number of articles it publishes.
Description
As per the new funding model, funds will be awarded to help defray the costs of publishing scholarly articles. Grants are to be considered a contribution to the journal’s operating costs for production and distribution. Eligible expenses include those related to:
- management of the peer-review process (including honoraria provided to support staff);
- editing (including staff salaries, release time and travel expenses);
- purchasing software;
- preparing copy (including typesetting, copy-editing and translation);
- document layout (including image presentation, and converting images to digital formats);
- technical assistance;
- marketing and other promotional activities;
- electronic-publication service providers.
Value and Duration
Grants are tenable for 12 months and are not renewable. The maximum value of a grant is $25,000. Grant values will be calculated as follows.
For successful applicants, the value of the grant will be calculated on the basis of $850 for each approved, peer-reviewed scholarly article to be published during the grant period.
As part of the total grant value, applicant journals may also obtain up to $5,000 to help defray distribution costs, such as fees charged by electronic-publication service providers.
Eligibility
Journals and Articles
For this program, an “open-access journal” is defined as a peer-reviewed academic publication that does not charge readers, either individually or through institutions, a subscription or any other type of fee to access the content of the publication.
The journal must provide this access, via the Internet, immediately upon release of the publication. Journals that use a “moving wall” arrangement to provide access only after a delay, or that only provide open access to back issues, are not eligible for support.
Also for this program, an “article” is defined as a record of previously unpublished, high-quality, original research or scholarship that has been accepted for publication after a rigorous process of peer review. The adjudication committee will apply this definition to determine what is or is not a research article.
To be eligible for support under this program, a journal must:
- meet the definition, given above, of an open-access journal;
- contribute to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge by publishing high-quality, as-yet-unpublished research, in fields supported by SSHRC, that meets international scientific or scholarly standards;
- submit each article to be published to a rigorous, arm’s-length peer-review process;
- have published, in the two years prior to the application deadline, a minimum of four issues, each having at least three articles or, for those journals not distributing research results by issue, at least 12 articles;
- have a minimum of 250 regular readers, as demonstrated through a detailed web-usage report or other verifiable documentation;
- have an editor-in-chief who is affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution, and who is an established researcher in the social sciences or humanities, or both;
- have an editorial board responsible for the intellectual direction and content of the journal, with the majority of the board’s members affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution;
- be published primarily in English or French, or both.
A journal is not eligible if:
- it disseminates previously published research results, or mainly publishes material assembled by non-specialists from secondary sources;
- it is a professional or trade magazine, bulletin, newsletter, or advocacy publication, or is instructional in nature;
- it is sponsored or published by, or on behalf of, a government department, agency, or commission;
- it charges readers a subscription or any other type of fee to access scholarly content;
- it has a delayed open-access arrangement, or only provides open access to back issues;
- any member of its editorial board is under SSHRC sanction for financial or research misconduct;
- it has an operating surplus equal to or greater than one year’s operating expenses;
- a non-Canadian publisher owns the exclusive copyright to its contents.
Institutions
Institutions that propose to administer any grant awarded under this program must meet the requirements for the management of SSHRC funds and hold or obtain institutional eligibility.
If the editor-in-chief is affiliated with an eligible Canadian postsecondary institution, that institution should administer the grant.
Evaluation and Adjudication
A multi-disciplinary committee of scholars and journal professionals well versed in journal operations and the principles of open-access publishing will adjudicate all applications.
The adjudication committee will base its assessment on, at a minimum, an examination of the following:
- the two most recent issues of the journal, or, if the journal does not distribute articles by issue, the six articles published immediately prior to the application deadline;
- any measure of impact (e.g., as taken from citation databases) for the journal, or, lacking these, a self-evaluation of the journal’s impact;
- the full list of members of the editorial board;
- a description of the functioning of the editorial board;
- the journal’s mission or mandate statement;
- a description of the journal’s procedures for selecting articles and conducting peer review;
- the journal’s publication plan for the period to be covered by the grant;
- the journal’s website and web-usage reports, or other documentation relevant to readership.
Applications will be assessed and scored according to three broad criteria:
I. Quality and Impact of the Journal (50%)
- quality of the articles published in relation to the international scientific or scholarly standards in the relevant field(s) of research, and to the current state of knowledge in those field(s);
- quality of the articles published in relation to the journal’s objectives;
- distinctiveness of the journal’s content;
- value of the contribution the journal has made to its field(s) of research;
- impact of the journal’s articles (e.g., as measured through citation indexes or as described by the applicant);
- extent of dissemination accomplished by the journal, both nationally and internationally, taking into account the journal’s focus and the state of research in its field(s).
II. Expertise of the Editorial Board’s Members (30%)
- academic standing of, and leadership provided by, the editor-in-chief;
- appropriateness of the members of the editorial board, as well as of their roles and responsibilities;
- rigour and quality of the processes used to select and peer review articles;
- soundness of the journal’s proposed objectives, as described in the publication plan, for the period covered by the grant.
III. Nature and Effectiveness of the Journal’s Current and Proposed Dissemination Strategies (20%)
- diversity and relevance of the journal’s proposed strategies for reaching the appropriate readership;
- nature and extent of the journal’s readership, and of the journal’s efforts to increase or broaden that readership;
- overall appearance and presentation of the journal’s content;
- design and ease of use of the journal’s website.
Applications receiving an overall score of 75 per cent or higher will be considered eligible for funding and rank-ordered; however, eligibility does not guarantee funding.
The adjudication committee will then establish an appropriate level of funding for each eligible journal by assessing its publication plan and its justification for distribution costs.
The following considerations may also affect the level of funding:
- if a journal’s past output is significantly different from its projected output;
- if a multi-disciplinary journal publishes articles in fields other than those supported by SSHRC
The number of eligible journals that receive grants will depend on the overall program budget.
Administrative Regulations
All applicants and grant holders must comply with the Regulations Governing Grant Applications and with the regulations set out in the Grant Holder’s Guide.
Applicants must submit a statement of account (647R) within 90 days of the completion of the grant.
More Information
Please address questions about the Aid to Open-Access Research Journals program to:
Lorraine Anderson
Team Leader
Research and Dissemination Grants
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
350 Albert Street
P.O. Box 1610
Ottawa, ON K1P 6G4
Tel.: 613-947-4233
Fax: 613-992-7635
E-mail: lorraine.anderson@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca
or
Brenda Werrell
Program Assistant
Aid to Research Journals
Tel.: 613-947-9659
Fax: 613-992-7635
E-mail: brenda.werrell@sshrc.ca