New HHMI Public Access Policy

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) just announced that it will require its scientists to publish their original research articles in scientific journals that allow the articles and supplementary materials to be made freely accessible in a public repository within six months of publication. This policy expands upon the current policy requiring HHMI investigators to share published research materials, databases, and software in a timely and useful manner.

The new policy applies to all manuscripts submitted on or after January 1, 2008 where an HHMI investigator is the major author. What's a major author? If the HHMI scientist is listed first or last on a paper, or is designated the corresponding author, than the HHMI investigator is considered the major author. However, HHMI strongly encourages all its investigators and collaborators, whether or not the major author, to comply with the public access policy.

For those in the biomedical sciences, PubMedCentral (PMC) developed by NIH and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the designated free digital archive. If the article is in a journal outside biological sciences, then deposit must be made in a comparable repository within 6 months.To help authors with this process, HHMI has entered an agreement with Wiley Publishers for uploading manuscripts to PubMedCentral, paying Wiley a fee for each upload. This goes into effect as of October 1. In addition, the American Society of Hematology, publisher of Blood, has extended its open access option to HHMI authors as of October 1, 2007.