PubMed Central Canada (PMC Canada) provides free access to a stable and permanent online digital archive of full-text, peer-reviewed health and life sciences research publications. It builds on PubMed Central (PMC), the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature and is a member of the broader PMC International (PMCI) network of e-repositories.

PMCI is a collaborative effort between the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), the publishers whose journal content makes up the PubMed Central archive, and organisations in other countries that share NLM's interest in archiving life sciences literature.

PMC Canada aims to provide a freely accessible, Canada-based archive of biomedical and health research findings. With PubMed Central, NLM has taken the lead in preserving and maintaining access to the electronic literature, just as it has done for decades with printed biomedical literature. PubMed Central aims to fill the role of a world class library in the digital age. It is not a journal publisher. NLM believes that giving all users free access to the material in PubMed Central is the best way to ensure the durability and utility of the archive as technology changes over time.

PMC Canada also supports CIHR's Policy on Access to Research Outputs, under which grant recipients are required to ensure that their peer reviewed publications are freely accessible online within six months of publication. PMC Canada's manuscript submission system enables CIHR-funded researchers to deposit articles that are accepted for publication by peer reviewed journals.