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Wellcome Trust Open Access Policy

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Early in 2009 the Trust will be undertaking an audit to assess the level of compliance with its open access (OA) mandate. In cases where the Trust finds that papers have not been made available through PMC/UKPMC it will contact grantholders and their institutions, and ask them to explain why this grant condition has not been adhered to.

The Wellcome Trust requires all Trust-funded researchers to make their peer-reviewed research papers available through PubMed Central (PMC) or UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) as soon as possible, and in any event no later than six months after publication.

There are two ways in which as an author you can comply with the grant condition:

  • Firstly, you can submit your manuscript to a journal that offers an open access option, i.e. the journal takes responsibility for depositing the final, published version of your paper in PMC/UKPMC and making it freely available on the day of publication. Under this model the author pays a fee to the publisher to make their article accessible free online. The Trust is providing additional funding to the University to cover this fee. Details of how to claim a refund for this fee at the University of Oxford are available on the ASUC website.
  • Secondly, if you submit your manuscript to a publisher that does not offer an open access option you can still comply with the policy by depositing a copy of the final, peer reviewed manuscript in PMC/UKPMC.

The Wellcome Trust has produced a list of the journals frequently used by their grantholders, along with advice on how to comply with the Trust's open access (OA) requirements in a way that also meets the journals' publishing policy. If the journal you are seeking to publish in is not included in this list, please consult the Sherpa/RoMEO database to determine its open access policy.

Further details of the Wellcome Trust's policy is given in their Authors' Guide and FAQ.

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