Publishers’ guide and FAQ
Open and unrestricted access to published research
This publishers' guide and FAQ seeks to clarify the Wellcome Trust position statement in support of open and unrestricted access to published research (first published in September 2005). While our policy has remained unchanged, this document is regularly updated in response to the queries we receive from our researchers, journal publishers and other stakeholders.
Last updated: 22 July 2009
1. What is the Wellcome Trust policy in support of open and unrestricted access to the research literature?
2. What is UK PubMed Central (UKPMC)?
3. Where should papers be deposited - PMC or UKPMC?
4. What version of a paper should be deposited in PMC/UKPMC?
5 Who is responsible for depositing papers supported by Wellcome Trust funding in PMC/UKPMC - the researcher or the publisher?
7. Do authors need to deposit previously published papers in PMC/UKPMC?
11. What is meant by the 'author-pays model', the 'funder-pays model' and the 'hybrid open access model'?
12. When an open-access fee is levied what does the Wellcome Trust require from the publisher?
13. How does a publisher deposit individual articles/papers directly into PMC?
14. Can a publisher deposit author manuscripts into PMC?
15. If a publisher offers a funded-access option, are Wellcome-funded authors obligated to select this option?
17. Are there any rights that authors should retain?
18. Can a publisher directly invoice the Trust for any Wellcome-funded papers they publish under an open access-author/funder pays model?
19. Does the funding the Trust has made available to cover the costs of open access publishing also cover 'additional page and colour plate' charges?
1.What is the Wellcome Trust policy in support of open and unrestricted access to the research literature?
1.1 The Trust has a position statement and an authors’ FAQ on this issue, which set out the specific obligations of institutions, grantholders and all others supported by Wellcome Trust grants.
1.2Specifically, the Wellcome Trust requires electronic copies of any research papers that have been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and are supported in whole or in part by Wellcome Trust funding, to be deposited into and made freely available from the PubMed Central (PMC) repository, [and any other PMC International (PMCI) site, such as UKPMC], as soon as possible and in any event within six months of the journal publisher's official date of final publication.
top
2.What is UKPMC?
2.1The Wellcome Trust - in association with a number of other UK biomedical funders - has established a UK version of PMC: UKPMC.The contract to run UKPMC has been awarded to a partnership between the British Library, the University of Manchester and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI).
2.2 The aim of this initiative is to create a stable, permanent and free-to-access digital archive of the full text, peer-reviewed research publications (and datasets) that arise from research funded by the Wellcome Trust and other members of the UKPMC Funders Group.
2.3 UKPMC comprises of three key systems.One, a mirror of the data held in PMC, subject to permission from those publishers that participate in PMC. Two, an author manuscript submission and tracking system - the UK Manuscript Submission System (UKMSS) - with supporting document conversion services.Three, a system to provide authenticated login services to the submission system.Further details can be found on the UKPMC project pages.
2.4In terms of securing permission to mirror data held in PMC to PMCI sites (such as UKPMC), this process is being managed by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). Publishers that already participate in PMC have an agreement with the NLM regarding the deposition of journal content into PMC.These publishers have been contacted to seek permission for their data to be mirrored.
3.Where should papers be deposited - PMC or UKPMC?
3.1 If the publisher is undertaking the deposition on behalf of the author, deposition should be made at the PMC site.These papers are then mirrored to the UKPMC site, and other PMCI repositories.See also questions 5 and 6.
3.2In cases where authors are 'self-archiving' their peer-reviewed manuscripts, deposition will be made using the UK version of the NIH Manuscript Submission system. Papers that are deposited through this system are ingested into PMC and then mirrored to UKPMC, and other PMCI repositories.
4.What version of a paper should be deposited in PMC/UKPMC?
4.1The Wellcome Trust would always prefer the final, published version (which includes all changes made during the peer review process and modifications made during the copy-editing, typesetting and proofing stages) to be made available in PMC, UKPMC and other PMCI repositories at the time of publication.Please note that the Trust's contributions must be acknowledged in all publications, quoting the grant reference number. The Trust has provided additional funding for its grantholders to cover the article-processing fees incurred by publishers. See also questions 11 and 12.
4.2However, some publishers do not allow their published version of a paper to be made available in PMC or PMCI repositories, like UKPMC. Consequently, as an absolute minimum requirement, the Trust mandates grantholders to deposit the version of the paper that is accepted for journal publication. This author manuscript includes all modifications that arise from the publishing peer-review process.
5. Who is responsible for depositing papers supported by Wellcome Trust funding in PMC/UKPMC - the researcher or the publisher?
5.1This depends on the policy of the publisher.For journals that already participate in PMC, the practice of posting all research papers directly into PMC continues. For example, researchers who have papers published in 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' or 'Journal of Clinical Investigation' (both journals that participate in PMC) need not deposit their papers in UKPMC, as the publisher will be responsible for making this content available in PMC.
5.2 For journals that operate a hybrid open access model (see also question 11), again the onus will be on the publisher to deposit the paper in PMC on behalf of the researcher.
5.3 For journals that neither participate in PMC nor have a hybrid open access model - but accept Wellcome Trust research papers on the understanding that they must be made freely available from PMC, UKPMC and other PMCI repositories within six months of publication - the researcher is responsible for depositing the peer-reviewed copy (i.e. the version of the manuscript that has been accepted for publication) using the UK Manuscript Submission System (UKMSS).
6.If the publisher already deposits articles/journals directly in PMC, will there be an additional need to deposit these papers in UKPMC?
No. Papers deposited in PMC will, with publisher permission, be mirrored to PMCI repositories, such as UKPMC.
7.Do authors need to deposit previously published papers in PMC/UKPMC?
No. The policy only applies to research papers resulting from grants awarded after 1 October 2005, and from 1 October 2006 to all grants regardless of award date. While the Trust would be delighted to see previously published papers deposited, we are in no position to insist on this due to the existence of copyright agreements between researcher and publisher which pre-date our Grant Conditions. We have specifically advised our researchers to ensure that no such agreements are breached.
8.What happens in cases where the journal does not allow the final, peer-reviewed manuscript to be made freely available from PMC/UKPMC within six months of publication?
8.1If a publisher's policy does not allow the deposition of Trust-funded research papers to be deposited in PMC/UKPMC and made freely available from PMC and all other PMCI repositories within six months of publication, then the author should not proceed with the submission to the journal for publication.
8.2The Wellcome Trust's Grant Conditions are mandatory and binding on institutions, grantholders, and all others supported by a grant. An author's obligations to the Wellcome Trust will therefore, in almost all cases, pre-date any agreement with a journal.
9. What happens in cases where a paper is accepted and published before the publisher finds out the author (or one of the authors) is Wellcome funded, and thus obligated to make this research paper freely available through PMC/UKPMC within six months?
9.1If an author archives a paper in PMC/UKPMC and the publisher either forbids this (or prohibits the specific version that the author has deposited being made available) and the publisher wishes for that paper to be removed from the archive, then a 'take-down notice' should be emailed to the Wellcome Trust: openaccess@wellcome.ac.uk All take-down notices sent to the Trust will be acted upon with two working days of their receipt.
9.2In addition to removing the article from the archive, the Wellcome Trust will liaise with the author and the publisher to try to ensure that this does not happen again.
9.3In an attempt to pre-empt this problem, the Wellcome Trust is actively working with publishers and researchers to raise awareness of our policy on open and unrestricted access to published research.
10.If a journal participates in PMC, but does not permit research papers to be made freely available until a 12-month period from the date of publication has elapsed, can a Wellcome Trust-funded researcher still submit papers to this journal?
Yes, providing the publisher allows the author to post the peer-reviewed copy of the manuscript in PMC and make it freely available within six months of publication. When the final, published version is made freely available in PMC, this will replace the author version.
11.What is meant by the 'author-pays model', the 'funder-pays model' and the 'hybrid open access model'?
11.1The 'author-pays model' is one in which publishers collect their revenue by charging open access publication fees to authors, rather then libraries (who subscribe to journals of behalf of their readers). In the case of Wellcome Trust-funded researchers, additional funding is made available by the Trust to cover these charges, and thus 'funder pays' is a more accurate way of describing this model.
11.2A 'hybrid open access model' is one where a publisher provides both an author/funder-pays and a reader-pays (subscription) model for specific titles. Blackwell, Springer, Elsevier and Oxford University Press, among others, have all introduced hybrid open access models.
12. When an open-access fee is levied what does the Wellcome Trust require from the publisher?
For any of the models involving an open-access fee (i.e. an author/funder-pays) publishers, to be compliant with the Wellcome policy, must agree to:
12.1 Deposit, on behalf of the author, the final version of the article - which includes all the changes that arise from the peer-review, copy-editing and proofing processes - in PubMed Central (PMC), where it must be made freely available at the time of publication. A link to the article on the publisher site is not sufficient.
12.2Deposit the article in XML or SGML format that conforms to an acceptable journal article DTD (document type definition). Details of the specific technical requirements can be found on the PubMed Central website. If the publisher cannot supply XML or SGML, please contact the Trust for advice.
12.3Deposit all high-resolution images used in the article.
12.4 Allow such articles to be mirrored to PMC International repositories, such as UKPMC.
12.5 Permit these articles to be freely copied, distributed, displayed, performed and modified into derivative works by any user. Publishers may impose conditions on users in relation to attribution (i.e. users must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor) and commercial use (i.e. specify that the work must not be used for commercial purposes).
12.6 Individual publishers may grant these rights in any way they wish, and although the Wellcome Trust does not require a particular form of licence, an example of how to convey these rights to the world at large is set out in the Creative Commons, Attribution-Non Commercial Licence, Version 2.0.These re-use permissions should, however, be made clear:
- in any publishing agreement reached between the publisher and an author
- on the publisher's own website
- on PMC (and PMC International repositories) through a link to the publisher's own website where the re-use permissions in relation to the article are explained.
12.7 To formalise the deposition process in PMC, we also require participating publishers to sign the PMC Selective Deposit Agreement.
13. How does a publisher deposit individual articles/papers directly into PMC?
13.1 The Wellcome Trust encourages publishers to deposit papers directly into PMC.This approach means that the authors do not have to self-archive their research papers, and more importantly, it ensures that only final published version of the article is available via PMC and UKPMC.
13.2 For this process to work effectively, the NLM must be sure that the publisher canroutinely supply files of sufficient quality to generate complete and accurate articles online, without the need for human action to correct errors or omissions in the data.To this end, the following process has been agreed:
13.3 Publishers should contact the PMC Team at pmc@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov and notify them that they intend to deposit papers for inclusion in the PMC archive, on behalf of Wellcome Trust authors.
13.4 The PMC Team will then liaise with the publisher to determine the details of what will be deposited and set up for an FTP account to enable sample files to be deposited for evaluation.
13.5 Sample files should be deposited in accordance with the instructions at the PubMed Central website.
13.6 Files will be evaluated by the PMC Team to ensure that :
- all required files have been supplied and are correctly named
- the XML/SGML parses correctly according to the DTD
- the online presentation of an article, as generated from the XML/SGML and associated image files, is an accurate and complete rendering of the article.
13.7 Once the evaluation process has been successfully completed - and files in the correct format can be routinely deposited - the publisher must complete a formal PubMed Central Participation Agreement with NLM.Publishers who deposit only those articles that fall under the Wellcome Trust's open access policy should complete the PMC Selective Deposit agreement.
14.Can a publisher deposit author manuscripts into PMC?
14.1 The Wellcome Trust’s preference is for the final published version of an article to be made available in PMC via the route identified in 13.
14.2 However, the functionality does exist for the UK Manuscript Submission System (UKMSS) to accept manuscripts submitted by publishers on behalf of authors via the Publisher bulk upload pathway. This module was developed to offer publishers a way to use in-house automated processes to organise and transmit multiple manuscript submissions to UKMSS.
14.3 Arrangements must be made with the UKPMC Helpdesk to set up an account to use this service.The Helpdesk can be contacted by email at ukpmc@bl.uk or by phone on 01937 546699
14.4 Authors should not be charged for this service.
15. If a publisher offers a funded-access option, are Wellcome-funded authors obligated to select this option?
15.1 It depends on the policy of the publisher.
15.2 If the publisher offers a funded-access option, the Trust would always encourage its authors to take advantage of this.If, however, the author wishes not to take advantage of a funded-access option, but instead to deposit a version of the manuscript manually, the author may choose between this route and the funded-access option as long as the publisher allows self-archiving of a suitable version of the manuscript within the scope of the Trust's Grant Conditions
15.3 If a publisher only offers a funded access option - which provides free access to the published version in PMC/UKPMC, at the time of publication - then to comply with the Trust Grant Conditions the author must select this option.By way of example, when publishing with Elsevier, Trust-funded authors must select the funded access option in order to comply with the Trust grant conditions.
16.If a Trust-funded paper is published under an open-access model, can the publisher still retain the commercial rights to this paper?
Yes.
17.Are there any rights that authors should retain?
17.1The requirements set out in paragraph 12 mean that publishers may choose to remodel their agreements with authors from an outright assignment model to a model whereby an author grants the publisher an exclusive licence to use the article for commercial purposes.
17.2Examples of rights that authors may wish to retain are:
- to use their material for teaching and research purposes, including course packs
- to share print or e-copies with colleagues
- to reuse articles in any other derivative works, such as personal compilations or scholarly collections, and receive royalties for the same.
18.Can a publisher directly invoice the Trust for any Wellcome-funded papers they publish under an open access-author/funder pays model?
No. The Trust sees publication costs as a research cost.Consequently, the additional funding it has made available for open-access publishing is channelled through the university system.
19.Does the funding the Trust has made available to cover the costs of open-access publishing also cover 'additional page and colour plate' charges?
No. Trust-funded researchers can, however, use funds from the Flexible Funding Allowance to cover these costs.