Chinese Agencies Promote Open Access

The Chinese Academy of Sciences now requires scientific articles generated from publicly funded research to be made freely available within 12 months of publication. Under a new policy, researchers funded by the academy must deposit an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts into open access repositories at their home institutions. The academy is also encouraging researchers to deposit previously published articles in such repositories. Open access will “facilitate knowledge dissemination and accelerate the globalization of science,” it says. The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) issued a similar policy, requiring open access to published results of projects it funds. Researchers supported by NSFC are required to place their manuscripts in an NSFC repository. Both announcements came just days before heads of research agencies from around the world gather in Beijing for the annual Global Research Council meeting this week. Open access to scientific publications is a main topic for the council’s deliberations this year.