Aid to Scholarly Journals: September 2025 Competition

Overview
Value	Up to $42,400 per year (for emerging journals) Up to $52,000 per year (for established journals)
Duration	3 years
Application deadlineFootnote *	September 10, 2025 (8 p.m. eastern)
Results announced	March 2026
Apply	Web CV, application and instructions

On this page

• Description
• Value and duration
• Eligibility
• Application process
• Merit review
• Regulations, policies and related information
• Contact information

Description

Aid to Scholarly Journals grants are expected to respond to the objectives of the Insight research program. The grants support Canadian scholarly research and dissemination by offering a contribution to enable journals to defray the costs associated with publishing open access scholarly articles and digital journal dissemination.

Aid to Scholarly Journals grants are meant to:

• enable the dissemination, discoverability and mobilization of original research results in the social sciences and humanities through Canadian scholarly journals;
• increase research capacity by facilitating knowledge sharing and the development of scholarly communities, particularly in areas relevant to Canada;
• assist journals in taking advantage of developments in digital technologies and innovative practices;
• promote best practices in open access scholarly publishing; and
• encourage the transition to immediate open access publishing.

SSHRC welcomes applications involving Indigenous research, as well as those involving research-creation.

Value and duration

Aid to Scholarly Journals grants are valued at up to $42,400 per year over three years for emerging journals and up to $52,000 per year over three years for established journals.

The value of the grant will be calculated based on a per-article rate for each approved, peer-reviewed scholarly article (see Definitions below) to be published during each year of the grant period.

There are four per-article rates:

• $1,800 for emerging journals that are published in immediate open access without a subscription and do not use article processing charges (APCs);
• $1,000 for established journals that are published in immediate open access and use APCs (gold);
• $1,800 for established journals that are published in delayed open access with an embargo period of 12 months or less, and do not use APCs; and
• $2,000 for established journals that are published in immediate open access without a subscription and do not use APCs (diamond).

In addition, as part of the total grant value for both emerging and established journals, the applicant may request up to $10,000 per year to contribute to the costs related to the development and implementation of publishing best practices, including but not limited to technical best practices (e.g., improvement of metadata and dissemination quality, such as indexing, search functionalities, reference set, metadata standards, digital object identifiers, interoperability, referencing, harvesting, metrics); digital accessibility, diversity and inclusion best practices; and innovative dissemination practices (e.g., developing a social media strategy aimed at increasing the dissemination and impact of the journal’s articles and/or content; developing innovative layouts and structures for articles; producing high-quality graphics, videos and podcasts; offering interactivity for postpublication discussions).

Eligibility

Subject matter

Most SSHRC funding is awarded through open competitions. Proposals can involve any disciplines, thematic areas, approaches or subject areas eligible for SSHRC funding. See the guidelines on subject matter eligibility for more information.

A journal is ineligible for funding under this funding opportunity if:

• its mandate and/or content is primarily focused outside of the discipline(s) within SSHRC’s mandate; and/or
• its content is primarily health-related and focused on clinical research and education, psychomotor research and kinesiology, counselling and therapy, and epidemiology.

If formally requested, SSHRC staff will, prior to the deadline, make every effort to offer prospective applicants advice regarding the eligibility of a journal’s subject matter. While SSHRC aims to provide the best possible advice in advance of an application, final decisions on eligibility for all applications will be made only upon receipt of the full application.

Applicants

The applicant must:

• be the editor-in-chief of the journal or, in the case of an editorial collective, one of the editors;
• be a faculty member affiliated with an eligible Canadian postsecondary institution; and
• assume responsibility for the grant.

Institutions

Grant funds can be administered only by an eligible Canadian postsecondary institution or not-for-profit organization (which, for the Aid to Scholarly Journals funding opportunity, is defined as either the journal itself, a scholarly association or a press that either administers or owns the journal). Institutions proposing to administer a grant awarded under this funding opportunity must hold or obtain institutional eligibility.

Not-for-profit organizations or journals that wish to establish or renew institutional eligibility or that have questions are strongly encouraged to contact SSHRC’s Institutional Eligibility team at least 10 business days before the application deadline.

Journals and articles

To be eligible for support, a journal must:

• meet the definition of a scholarly journal (see Definitions below);
• submit each article (see Definitions below) to a rigorous, independent peer review process;
• publish primarily in English and/or French;
• meet at least one of the two following criteria:
  1. a minimum of one third of the core editorial board is affiliated with an eligible Canadian postsecondary institution; and/or
  2. the journal title is owned by a Canadian not-for-profit organization.
• publish in immediate open access, without a subscription and without APCs (diamond open access) and under an open license (e.g., Creative Commons or equivalent);
  • exceptionally for the 2025 cycle of Aid to Scholarly Journals, established journals publishing in delayed open access with an embargo of 12 months or less or using APCs will remain eligible; however, the application must include a plan to transition to immediate open access without APCs by 2028 (plan to be included in the “Journal description and outline of future direction” section of the application);
• be indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), or aligned with DOAJ inclusion criteria;
  • exceptionally for the 2025 cycle of Aid to Scholarly Journals, journals not included or aligned with DOAJ criteria (including the requirement to publish under an open license, Creative Commons or equivalent) will remain eligible; however, the application must include a plan to align the journal with DOAJ criteria by 2028 in the “Journal description and outline of future direction” section of the application;
• for established journals: have been founded two or more years prior to the application deadline and have published, within that timeframe, a minimum of two issues per year, each including at least three peer-reviewed articles or, for journals not publishing in issue format, at least six peer-reviewed articles per year over the two-year timeframe; and
• for emerging journals: have been founded within the two years prior to the application deadline and have published, within that timeframe, a minimum of one issue that includes at least three peer-reviewed articles or, for journals not publishing in issue format, at least three peer-reviewed articles.

Definitions

SSHRC provides Definitions of Terms used in the grant application process. The following definitions apply specifically to this funding opportunity.

Article

For the purposes of this funding opportunity, an article is defined as a record of previously unpublished, high-quality, original research or scholarship that has been accepted for publication after a formal peer review process. The adjudication committee will apply this definition to determine what is or is not a research article.

Eligible article types include: research or theoretical articles and/or essays, literature reviews, and nontraditional, short-form research results (e.g., podcasts, comics) provided they meet the other criteria of being original, peer reviewed and high quality.

Ineligible article types include: introductions; individual book, article or event reviews; letters to the editor; and editorials.

Scholarly journal

For the purposes of this funding opportunity, a scholarly journal is defined as a peer-reviewed academic publication that disseminates the results of original scholarship.

A publication is ineligible if:

• it disseminates previously published research results, or mainly publishes material assembled by nonspecialists 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 is edited and published solely by students;
• any member of its editorial board is under SSHRC sanction for financial or research misconduct;
• it is a hybrid journal offering some content in open access (with or without APCs) and other content via subscription; and/or
• a non-Canadian publisher owns the exclusive copyright to its contents.

Monitoring

Grant holders will be expected to report on the use of grant funds, on funded activities undertaken during the grant period, and on outcomes. Successful applicants will be informed of reporting requirements when they receive their notice of award.

Application process

Applicants must complete the application form in accordance with the accompanying application instructions. Applications must be submitted electronically by an authorized research grants officer, or equivalent, from the applicant’s institution, or by a representative of the not-for-profit organization who has financial signing authority and is not participating in the project.

Applicants needing help while preparing their application should communicate with SSHRC well in advance of the application deadline.

Once the 8 p.m. (eastern) application deadline has passed, the application server will be offline for two business days and unable to accept applications.

Merit review

Applications are reviewed, and available funds awarded, through a competitive merit review process. SSHRC bases funding decisions on the recommendations of the  merit review committee and on the funds available. Committee discussions are guided by the principle of minimum essential funding.

SSHRC is committed to ensuring high-quality adjudication of all proposals by ensuring that an appropriate variety of disciplines are represented and that committee members are well versed in journal operations.

Aid to Scholarly Journals grant applications are evaluated through a single-stage committee review process that does not involve external assessments. All Aid to Scholarly Journals adjudication committees are multidisciplinary.

Evaluation criteria and scoring

The following criteria and scoring scheme are used to evaluate Aid to Scholarly Journals grant applications:

1. Quality and value of the journal (40%):
   • rigour and quality of the processes used to select and peer review articles;
   • relevance of the articles published in relation to the journal’s objectives;
   • distinctiveness of the journal’s content and/or objectives;
   • value of the contribution the journal has made to its field(s) of research and to other relevant user communities, if applicable, or, for emerging journals, the potential contribution of the journal to its field(s) of research and relevant user communities, if applicable; and
   • impact of the journal’s articles (e.g., as measured through traditional metrics or altmetrics, or as described by the applicant) or, for emerging journals, the potential impact of the journal’s articles.
2. Editorial direction (30%):
   • leadership provided by the editor-in-chief;
   • appropriateness of the editorial board / publishing team;
   • evidence of active engagement of board / team members; and
   • quality of the journal’s proposed objectives for the period covered by the grant, and probability that these will be met.
3. Nature and effectiveness of the journal’s current and proposed dissemination strategies (30%):
   • for established journals only: nature and extent of the journal’s current readership, and effectiveness of the journal’s past efforts to increase or broaden that readership;
   • quality of the journal’s proposed strategies for reaching the appropriate readership; and
   • overall presentation and usability of the journal’s content and website, including metadata quality.

Journals will be asked to provide online access to the issues/articles published since June 1, 2023, if the content is not already available via open access.

Scoring table

Merit review committee members assign a score for each of the three criteria above, based on the following scoring table. The appropriate weighting is then applied to arrive at a final score. Applications must receive a score of 3.0 or higher for each of the three criteria to be recommended for funding.

Score	Descriptor
5-6	Very good to excellent
4-4.9	Good to very good
3-3.9	Satisfactory to good
Below 3	Unsatisfactory

Communication of results

SSHRC makes competition results available to applicants (via the SSHRC Extranet for Applicants) and institutions (via the Grants and Scholarships Administration Portal).

All applicants will be provided, in addition to SSHRC’s notice of decision, a summary of the merit review committee’s evaluation of their proposal, where applicable.

Regulations, policies and related information

SSHRC reserves the right to determine the eligibility of applications, based on the information included. SSHRC also reserves the right to interpret the regulations and policies governing its funding opportunities.

All applicants and grant holders must comply with the Regulations Governing Grant Applications and with the regulations set out in the Tri-agency Guide on Financial Administration. Applicants are advised to consult the Use of Grant Funds section of the Tri-agency Guide on Financial Administration to determine if an expenditure is an appropriate use of grant funds. Further guidance on appropriate use of Aid to Scholarly Journals grant funding may be found in the Aid to Scholarly Journals frequently asked questions.

Specific rule for the use of grant funds

Grant funds cannot be used for salaries, stipends or release time for faculty (including editors, co-editors, and/or members of editorial or review boards).

Contact information

For more information, contact:

For information not found here or in the Aid to Scholarly Journals frequently asked questions, contact:

Email: scholarlyjournals@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca
Toll-free: 1-855-275-2861