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cOAlition S expands its global footprint as the Québec Research Funds adopt Plan S

01/06/2021

cOAlition S is excited to welcome on board the Québec Research Funds (QRF) as the latest organisation – and first North American public funder – to join the international consortium of research funding and performing organisations committed to delivering full and immediate Open Access to scientific publications.

Representing almost a quarter of Canada’s scientific community, the Québec Research Funds support excellence in research and the training of researchers in the fields of natural sciences, mathematical sciences, engineering, health, social sciences, humanities, arts and literature in order to stimulate the development of knowledge and innovation. In 2019-2020 the QRF spent 253 million dollars in support of research by providing grants, scholarships and awards.

The QRF announced today that they are joining cOAlition S to implement immediate open access to scientific publications resulting from the research they fund. Since 2019, the QRF require that scientific articles generated by the research they fund are made available in open access within 12 months of publication. By joining cOAlition S, the QRF will amend their Open Access Policy to align with Plan S and require that from March 2023, all QRF funded research must be made open access at the time of publication. This change will be of particular benefit to those who do not have access to institutional subscriptions to scientific journals, but also more broadly to citizens, concludes the announcement.

Announcing the news, the Chief Scientist of Québec, Rémi Quirion, stated: “We are proud to support initiatives that maximize the discoveries made by Québec researchers and promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge generated by public funds to as many of our fellow citizens as possible”.

Marc Schiltz, President of Science Europe and Chair of the cOAlition S Leaders Group commented: “I am delighted that QRF are joining the growing global coalition of funders that support Plan S, thereby enabling full and immediate Open Access to the research outcomes that they fund. The past months have so clearly demonstrated the importance of Open Science for fostering research collaboration on the global scale and for delivering the benefit of science to society”.

 

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