Canadian Government Aid to Scholarly Journals Grant (September 2025 Competition)

Eligibility Criteria

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.

Note:Multidisciplinary journals that publish articles outside of SSHRC’s mandate are eligible to apply for Aid to Scholarly Journals funding, provided that their mandate and publications fall primarily under SSHRC’s mandate. If a multidisciplinary journal has been deemed eligible and is successful in the Aid to Scholarly Journals competition, the level of funding awarded will be adjusted to reflect the percentage of its articles devoted to social sciences and humanities content.

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.

Note:Journals that are published and/or distributed by a commercial organization may apply if they meet all the criteria above; however, a case will need to be made for the need for SSHRC funding.

Note:All journals will be required to publish in immediate open access without a subscription or APCs (diamond open access) and under an open license (Creative Commons or equivalent) for the 2028 Aid to Scholarly Journals competition.

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.

Offered Benefits

• Up to $42,400 per year (for emerging journals)
• Up to $52,000 per year (for established journals)

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.

For more details, visit Canadian Government Scholarship webpage