Wellcome Trust Enforces Its Open Access Policy More Vigorously

The Wellcome Trust is enforcing its open access policy with three new rules.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Since 2006, its open access policy has required that all research papers funded in whole or in part by the Wellcome Trust be made available via the UK PubMed Central repository as soon as possible, and in any event within six months of the date of publication. At present, only 55 per cent of research papers acknowledging Wellcome Trust funding comply with its open access policy. . . .

Sir Mark has written to university vice-chancellors and the directors of the Trust's major overseas programmes to outline the steps that the Trust will be taking:

  • When Trust-funded researchers prepare final grant reports, it will require the principal investigator's institution to provide assurance that all papers associated with the grant comply with the Trust's policy. If they are unable to do this, the final payment on the grant will be withheld.
  • Non-compliant publications will be discounted as part of a researcher's track record in any renewal of an existing grant or new grant application.
  • Trust-funded researchers will be required to ensure that all publications associated with their Wellcome-funded research are compliant with the Trust's policy before any funding renewals or new grant awards will be activated.

All three steps will apply to research articles published from 1 October 2009 onwards.

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