Grants e-newsletter

No. 1, October 2005

1. Introduction

Welcome to the pilot edition of the Wellcome Trust Funding e-newsletter. The aim of this newsletter is to provide you with important information about new funding initiatives and changes in policies and procedures.

In this first issue we focus on how the Trust plans to maximise the impact of the research it funds, through its support of open and unrestricted access to published research.

2. Open and unrestricted access to published research

To meet its mission – to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health – the Wellcome Trust has a commitment to ensuring that the research it funds can be freely accessed.

The Human Genome Project conclusively demonstrated the benefits of sharing information in an open and unrestricted way; the Trust now plans to extend this approach to research published in peer-reviewed journals.

The full position statement in support of open and unrestricted access to published research can be found on the Wellcome Trust website.

3. Grant Conditions

In support of its position on unrestricted access to published research, the Wellcome Trust has modified its Grant Conditions.

Specifically, copies of the final manuscripts of all authors' research papers, supported in whole or in part by Wellcome Trust funding, must be deposited in PubMed Central – the free-to-access life sciences repository, developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Papers deposited in this repository should be made freely accessible as soon as possible, and no later than six months after publication.

As a recipient of Wellcome Trust funding you are encouraged to make yourself aware of the full Grant Conditions.

4 Benefits of open and unrestricted access

As a Trust-funded researcher, this change in policy will benefit you in two ways. Firstly, your research papers will be given a much wider form of dissemination – anyone with internet access will be able to be read them without restriction. This will increase the impact of your research. Indeed, research is starting to show that open access articles were cited 50-300 per cent more often than non-open access articles from the same journal and year.

Secondly, as a reader of research you will increasingly be able to access the full text of all the research published in your area, not just the research available to you via the subscriptions your institution offers.

Further information about the benefits of making research available without restriction can be found in a recent article in PLoS Biology and in the authors' guide and FAQ.

5. Next steps

Within the next couple of weeks you will receive a second email, which will provide you with practical information on how to deposit a manuscript in PubMed Central, along with your specific Manuscript Submission System username and password.

6. Open access papers: recent highlights

Recognising the benefits of open access, a number of Trust-funded researchers are already publishing their research in journals that support this model. Below, we provide a summary of some recent highlights.

Calories Do Not Explain Extension of Life Span by Dietary Restriction in Drosophila
Mair W, Piper MD, Partridge L
PLoS Biol. 2005 Jul; 3(7): e223
Eating less, but not becoming malnourished, can extend the lifespans of diverse organisms. Linda Partridge and colleagues show that, in Drosophila, it is not calories but nutrients that have this effect: flies live longer when they eat less protein and fat (in the form of yeast) than if they eat less sugar.

An Immune Basis for Malaria Protection by the Sickle Cell Trait
Williams TN, et al.
PLoS Med. 2005 May; 2(5): e128
Research in Kenya suggests that sickle cell trait (genotype HbAS) helps protect against malaria by enhancing not only innate but also acquired immunity to the parasite.

Early life risk factors for obesity in childhood: cohort study
Reilly JJ, et al.
BMJ. 2005 Jun 11; 330(7504): 1357.
Obesity is common in children and adolescents, and its prevalence is still increasing. Working with the 14 000-strong Avon longitudinal study of parents and children, the researchers found eight factors in early life – such as the number of hours spent watching television per week at the age of three – that were associated with the risk of obesity at the age of seven.