Wellcome Trust announces Open Access plans

The move comes as part of a drive from the UK’s biggest medical research charity to push forward open access publication of scientific literature, making findings freely available to those who want to see them.

The Wellcome Trust has also announced that from 1st October 2006, all existing grant holders must deposit any future papers produced from Trust funding into PubMed Central or UK PubMed Central. This delay in extending the grant condition will allow existing grant holders time to adjust to the new policy and let us know what problems – if any – they may experience, affording us the time to overcome them.

The Wellcome Trust is the UK’s biggest non-governmental funder of biomedical research spending £400 million producing almost 3500 papers each year.

Dr Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, said:

“Digital archives such as PubMed Central add enormous value to research. Everyone, everywhere will be able to read the results of the research that we fund. PubMed Central provides a link from research to other papers and sources of data, and greatly improves the power and efficiency of research.

“Digital archives are only as good as the information stored in them. That’s why we feel it’s important to encourage our researchers along this path – one I hope others will follow.”

Last week the Wellcome Trust, alongside MRC, BBSRC, British Heart Foundation, ARC and JISC, called for organisations interested in operating a UK PubMed Central to come forward.