Wellcome Trust and National Library of Medicine in talks

for worldwide

open access archive

The Wellcome Trust, the UK’s largest biomedical research charity, is in discussions with the US National Library of Medicine on the establishment of a European PubMed Central – a free, virtual, worldwide library of biomedical research.

The establishment of this database of peer reviewed, biomedical research would mean that research papers from scientists working on a range of diseases, including TB, malaria and HIV, as well as basic research, are accessible at no charge to any researcher, patient group or member of the public anywhere in the world.

Dr Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, said, “We are determined to make the results of the research we fund freely available to anyone who wants them.We believe that central archives are the way to achieve this.The outcome of research is new knowledge about disease and health.Maximising the value of research means maximising the distribution of the results.”

Dr Walport confirmed that the next step is to hold discussions with the research community on the practicalities of bringing about the vision of an open access publishing model for all Wellcome Trust funded research.He said, “We would require all the papers reporting the results of the research we fund to be placed in a public access archive within six months of publication.We will cover, through additional funding, the costs involved in this change in publishing practice.”

This move has been shaped by two reports commissioned by the Wellcome Trust into scientific publishing.The first, in September 2003, concluded that the current system was failing science.A follow-up study in April 2004 found that savings of up to 30% were possible in a move to an open access system.

The way in which scientific findings are published is an issue of growing concern and was the subject of a recent enquiry by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee.

Ends

Media Contacts:

Miriam de Lacy / Mark Anderson

Wellcome Trust

0207 611 8285/ 8612

Notes to editor:

1. The Wellcome Trust is an independent research funding charity established in 1936 under the will of the tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome. The Trust’s mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health and it currently spends over £400 million per annum.

2. The Wellcome Trust report into open access ‘An economic analysis of scientific research publishing’ was published in September 2003 and is available at: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTD003181.html

‘Costs and business models in scientific research models’ was published in April 2004 and is available at: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTD003181.html

3. The House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee report into scientific publishing can be found at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/39902.htm