Tri-Agency Policies

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) are three federal research funding agencies collectively known as the Tri-Agency.

Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications

The objective of the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (last modified: 2016/12/21) is to increase the accessibility of the results of Agency-funded research. As of January 1, 2008, research funded by the CIHR must satisfy two requirements:

  1. Deposit bioinformatics, atomic, and molecular coordinate data into an appropriate database upon publication. (Examples of research outputs and corresponding publicly accessible archive, repository or database)
  2. Preserve original datasets, both published and unpublished, for at least five years after the end of the grant.

Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy For Consultation

The Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy for Consultation (last modified: 2018/05/25) promotes best practices in research data management.

  • Section 3.2 “Data Management Plans” states that grant applicants must ensure that proposals submitted to the agencies include methods that represent best practices in research data management. In particular, the creation of data management plans is encouraged by the agencies, and is required by some grants.
  • As indicated in section 3.3 “Data Deposit”, the policy requires grant recipients to deposit all digital research data, metadata, and code into a repository. This applies to all data that directly support the research conclusions in journal publications, pre-prints, and other research output from agency-funded research.

Note that as of 2019, this document remains a draft and the policy will be implemented incrementally.

Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management

The Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management (last modified: 2016/12/21) specifies the expectations of the agencies regarding research data management, which encompasses:

  1. Data Management Planning
  2. Constraints and Obligations
  3. Adherence to Standards
  4. Collection and Storage
  5. Metadata
  6. Preservation, Retention and Sharing
  7. Timeliness
  8. Acknowledgement and Citation
  9. Efficient and Cost Effective

The statement also defines the responsibilities of the researchers, research communities, research institutions, and research funders that must be fulfilled in order to meet these expectations.

From the statement:

Responsibilities of researchers include:

  • incorporating data management best practices into their research;
  • developing data management plans to guide the responsible collection, formatting, preservation and sharing of their data throughout the entire lifecycle of a research project and beyond;
  • following the requirements of applicable institutional and/or funding agency policies and professional or disciplinary standards;
  • acknowledging and citing datasets that contribute to their research; and
  • staying abreast of standards and expectations of their disciplinary community.