Roadmap for SSHRC Aid to Scholarly Journals: Adopting Best Practices in Diamond Open Access

This road map is meant primarily for scholarly journals, with or without an embargo period/moving wall, that do not already use an open licence and that intend to comply with the criteria laid out in the 2025 SSHRC ASJ program, though any journal may find its guiding principles useful. In the summer of 2025, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) announced its new Aid to Scholarly Journals (ASJ) program. The competition introduces new requirements for eligible journals for the next competition, scheduled for 2028. By 2028, SSHRC will require that all journals be made available in immediate open access without article processing charges (also known as diamond open access), have an open licence and be aligned with the criteria of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to be eligible for funding.

Coalition Publica, as a partnership between Érudit and PKP working closely with university libraries, is committed to supporting journals in the transition to diamond open access and in adhering to best practices in digital publishing. We are pleased to provide this road map as one of the tools available to journals to undertake a transition to an open access business model and/or align the journal with best practices in open access publishing.