Open Access Becomes A Mandate by The UK Major Funding Body

"The Wellcome Trust officially announced this morning that it would mandate OA to all Wellcome-funded research, starting October 1, 2005. There have been many unofficial previews of this announcement since at least November 2004. From the press release: 'The Wellcome Trust has announced that from 1st October 2005, all papers from new research projects must be deposited in PubMed Central or UK PubMed Central ? once it has been formed - within 6 months of publication. 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 is the UK's biggest non-governmental funder of biomedical research spending UKP400 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." '

PS: Kudos to the Wellcome Trust. It's the world's largest research funder, public or private, willing to mandate OA to the results of the research it funds. The reasons it has given for this policy apply to all funders of non-classified research. I hope its leadership will help funding agencies worldwide to recognize their interest in using open access to increase the visibility, utility, and impact of their research."

Source: Peter Suber. Wellcome Trust mandates OA. OA News (19 May 2005) [FullText]