BioMed Central announces open access publishing agreement with HHMI

BioMed Central, the world’s largest publisher of open access scientific journals, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) today announced a membership agreement under which HHMI will pay the article processing charges for all research published by HHMI investigators in BioMed Central journals. Articles published under this agreement will be made immediately and freely available on the web in their final published form, and will be deposited in international archives including PubMed Central (PMC). The agreement between HHMI and BioMed Central takes effect for articles submitted after September 1, 2007.

This agreement complements HHMI's recently announced open access policy, which requires that the results of research funded by the Institute must be deposited in PubMed Central, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature, not more than six months after publication.

“BioMed Central is pleased to partner with HHMI, helping it to maximize the impact and visibility of the research it funds by encouraging open access publication,” said Dr. Matt Cockerill, publisher of BioMed Central. “Many HHMI researchers already publish in BioMed Central's journals, and this new agreement further emphasizes HHMI’s commitment to making its scientists’ research results freely available to the public and the international scientific community.”

The BioMed Central postpay membership option chosen by HHMI offers the choice of quarterly or monthly invoicing, and provides detailed reporting on the research articles which have been published under the scheme. Source : BioMed Central