Open Access gets a Wellcome boost

The Wellcome Trust has expressed its unequivocal support for Open Access publishing initiatives.

The Wellcome Trust, the UK's leading biomedical research charity, issued a position statement in October that expresses its commitment to supporting open and unrestricted access to research findings. "As a funder of research, we are committed to ensuring that the results of the science we fund are disseminated widely and are freely available to all," says the Trust's Director, Dr Mark Walport. This echoes sentiments expressed by the directors of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), a US funder that has also thrown its support behind Open Access (see Open Access Now, July 14, 2003).

The Wellcome Trust says that the distribution strategies currently used by many publishers prevent dissemination and access. "The fundamental point is that as a research funder we have to question whether it is right that we, and others, are in the position of having to pay to read the results of the research that we fund," says Walport. "We want to see a system in place that supports open and unrestricted access to research outputs and we would like to encourage others to support this principle."

The Wellcome Trust statement follows publication of a report - entitled 'An Economic Analysis of Scientific Research Publishing' - that was conducted by economic development consultants SQW on behalf of the Trust and is the result of comprehensive analysis of a publishing industry that generates some £22 billion (US$36 billion) annually. The report concludes that "the publishing of scientific research does not operate in the interests of scientists and the public, but is instead dominated by a commercial market intent on improving its market position."

"Today's report maps out the market as it stands and we hope to use this as a way of starting a dialogue with others to join us in finding a new model for the way we publish research, and one that satisfies the needs of those involved," says Walport. In addition to its words of encouragement, the Wellcome Trust expressed its commitment to meeting the cost of online publication charges for Trust-funded research by permitting its researchers to use contingency funds for this purpose. And the Trust is calling on other funding agencies to join it and HHMI in covering the additional costs for authors publishing under Open Access. The Trust's statement has been enthusiastically welcomed by Open Access advocates and publishers and is seen as a significant boost to changing the way biomedical research is published and disseminated.

www.wellcome.ac.uk