BioMed Central applauds Wellcome's leadership on Open Access

(I-Newswire) May 29, 2005 - "For too long, funders have stood by as the results of scientific and medical research have been handed over to traditional publishers, who have then put those research articles behind subscription barriers," said Matthew Cockerill, Director of Operations at BioMed Central. "Subscription-only access to research does not meet the needs of researchers, funders, or the general public, all of whom benefit from the widest possible access to research findings, which is what Open Access delivers."

"Following on from the National Institutes of Health's similar initiative in the USA, Wellcome's move shows that the funders who spend hundreds of millions of pounds to carry out the research in the first place are no longer prepared to see their research results remain inaccessible."

The Wellcome Trust is the UK's biggest non-governmental funder of biomedical research with an annual spend of £400 million. The recipients of Wellcome's funding produce almost 3500 scientific articles each year. With such a major funding body backing Open Access, it is now expected that other funding bodies around the world will follow suit.

Wellcome's policy specifies that articles must be made freely available within, at most, six months of initial publication, but BioMed Central called on researchers to go further and to make their research accessible immediately on publication, by choosing an Open Access journal."

"Six months is a long time in science - with the rapid pace of research, quick access to the latest results is vital. So, the best way for researchers to meet the spirit of the Wellcome policy is to publish in fully Open Access journals, such as those published by BioMed Central."

Publishing in any of BioMed Central's 130 Open Access journals will also make life easier for Wellcome-funded researchers: "BioMed Central already deposits a copy of the official final version of every research article that it publishes with the appropriate Open Access archive. As a result, authors publishing with BioMed Central will automatically meet the requirements of the Wellcome policy, saving themselves the effort of having to deposit a separate copy of their research article."

About BioMed Central

BioMed Central is an independent online publishing house committed to providing open access to peer-reviewed research. This commitment is based on the view that immediate free access to research and the ability to freely archive and reuse published information is essential to the rapid and efficient communication of science.

Wellcome's announcement of its policy on Open Access: wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX025191.html

Contact: Grace Baynes
press@biomedcentral.com
44-20-7631-9988
BioMed Central
http://www.biomedcentral.com

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