Open Access News

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Friday, May 26, 2006

Wellcome Trust FAQ for publishers on its OA policy

The Wellcome Trust has issued a Publishers' Guide and FAQ to help publishers understand its OA policy. Excerpt:

8. What happens in cases where the journal does not allow the final, peer-reviewed manuscript to be made freely available from PMC/UKPMC within 6 months of publication?

8.1 If a publisher’s policy does not allow the deposition of Trust-funded research papers to be deposited in PMC/UKPMC and made freely available within 6 months of publication, then the author should not proceed with the submission to the journal for publication.

8.2 The Wellcome Trust’s Grant Conditions are mandatory and binding on institutions, grantholders, and all others supported by a grant. An author’s obligations to the Wellcome Trust will therefore, in almost all cases, pre-date any agreement with a journal....

15. Can a publisher directly invoice the Trust for any Wellcome-funded papers they publish under an OA - author/funder pays model?

No. The Trust sees publication costs as a research cost. Consequently, the additional funding it has made available for open access publishing is channelled through the University system.

Also see the Authors' Guide and FAQ.

Note that Wellcome requires papers to be deposited in PMC or UKPMC. Hence, the new Elsevier option, which provides free online access only through ScienceDirect, will not satisfy Wellcome's requirement.