HHMI Will Require Free Access To Journal Articles

Howard Hughes Medical Institute has announced a new policy regarding articles authored by biomedical researchers supported by the prestigious philanthropic organization. Beginning in January 2008, HHMI investigators will be required to publish only in those journals that make articles freely accessible in a public repository within six months of publication.

HHMI supports more than 300 investigators, some of whom publish in American Chemical Society journals. Investigators who publish in an ACS journal can satisfy HHMI's requirement by utilizing the society's AuthorChoice option. For a $1,000—$3,000 fee, ACS provides free reader access to an article via the ACS website immediately upon online publication and deposits a copy of the article in the National Institutes of Health's free PubMed Central repository.

HHMI may be the first U.S. funding institution to impose a mandatory public-access policy on its investigators. In the U.K., the Wellcome Trust, which funds biomedical research, already has a mandatory public-access policy.