Open access to research articles has been in the news quite a bit lately (see the SciHub controversy, the preprints in biology discussion, and the European Union’s recent announcement). The Data-Driven Discovery team at the Moore Foundation has also been discussing open access, particularly as it relates to the publications generated by our #MooreData researchers. Our grantee population is fairly progressive when it comes to open science, and many of the outputs that they generate are already publicly available (including proposals, software, workflows, and publications). It is therefore easy for us to imagine that they would embrace a policy that mandates open access for research articles that they produce. That said, we are always open to discussions!
Below are sections from a draft DDD policy that we are considering. We would love to have feedback, comments, and discussion from grantees and others. Note that the larger policy will include software, data, and other outputs, but we are not ready to share those sections just yet.
Proposed Moore DDD Policy Excerpts
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation wants to maximize the impact of the research we fund. To this end, Data-Driven Discovery Initiative grantees are expected to provide the widest possible access to their research outputs. This will help promote reproducible research, increase the pace of discovery, and ensure broader societal and economic benefits from the work they do. We welcome comments, questions, and concerns about this policy, and encourage discussion around how best to achieve the goal of broad research impact.
Preprints
Ideally, all journal articles would first be available as preprints. Preprints are versions of your manuscript that are not yet peer reviewed. Many journals allow you to submit articles that have been available as preprints (see this list for more information). Read more about the benefits of preprints here. Typical places where preprints are deposited for free (read more from Jabberwocky Ecology blog):
- arXiv (for physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology)
- bioRxiv (for any biology research)
- PeerJ Preprints (for biology, medical/health sciences, computer sciences)
- figshare (for any research)
Publications
We require that all journal articles resulting from research that we fund be openly accessible. This can be achieved in one of two ways:
Gold Open Access: Choosing a journal that has the option to make your article open access at the time of publication (this is known as “Gold Open Access”). Journals that have a Gold Open Access option are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, which also provides fee information for those that require payment for making your article Open Access. Note that the Moore Foundation will pay for your open access fees; please email us at ddd@moore.org for more information.
Green Open Access: If the journal does not have an open access option, you should ensure that they have a policy that allows you to post the publication on a secondary site afterward (this is known as “Green Open Access”, or “self archiving”). To learn about a journal’s policy, go to the SHERPA/ROMEO website and search for your preferred journal name. Journals typically allow one of the following, all of which are acceptable options for complying with the policy:
- posting preprint versions only
- posting the final version, but not the journal’s PDF version
- posting the journal’s final PDF version
You should post whatever version is allowed in a publicly accessible place, ideally a repository with a long term preservation policy (as opposed to a lab website or other more transient location). To find an open access repository, search the Directory of Open Access Repositories or talk to your institution’s librarian. Many institutions have repositories specifically for archiving Green Open Access manuscripts.
Sometimes journals require embargoes on your self-archived version; we are open to discussion about whether such embargoes should be allowed (and if they are mandatory, whether a grantee should publish in that journal).
Still confused about Open Access? Here’s a handy animation from Phdcomics that explains it.
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