The UK Department of Health has been an active supporter of open access to published research, both through NHS England’s BioMed Central membership , and also through the Department’s involvement in UK PubMed Central. It has now released  an official policy statement, requiring funding recipients to deposit resulting articles in UKPMC within 6 months of publication.

According to the official policy:

1. The DH requires that, for applications
   submitted from 1st April 2007, electronic copies of any research papers
   that have been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal (or
   final reports and / or executive summaries) which are supported in
   whole or in part by DH funding, are deposited at the earliest
   opportunity ¿ and in any case within six months – in UK PubMed Central (UKPMC).
2. Deposition
   of a research paper, final report or executive summary into UKPMC does
   not prevent authors from also depositing a copy in the institutional or
   another subject-based repository should they choose to do so or be
   required to do so by their employing institution.
3. The DH also
   strongly encourages, but does not formally oblige, all grant recipients
   to deposit articles arising from grants awarded as a result of
   applications submitted before 1st April 2007.
4. The DH strongly
   encourages authors to publish in journals that allow them (or their
   institutions) to retain ownership of the copyright.
5. If
   author/institution-ownership of copyright is not permitted by the
   publisher, authors should publish in journals that permit deposition
   of…the published paper in UKPMC within six months of publication.
6. The
   DH will work with publishers to put in place mechanisms for publishers
   to deposit publications directly, on behalf of authors, where this is
   possible….
7. The DH’s grant conditions are consistent with this approach and do not require amendment….
8. Where researchers inform the NIHR [National
   Institute for Health Research] of their wish to publish a paper in a
   journal that is unwilling to agree either to
   author/institution-ownership of copyright, or to deposition in UKPMC
   within six months, the NIHR may grant permission for authors to submit
   the paper for publication in such a journal.
9. Authors will
   benefit in two ways.  Firstly, their papers will be given a much wider
   form of dissemination and will be able to be read without restriction
   by anyone with internet access.  Secondly, as researchers they will
   increasingly be able to search the full text of all the research
   published in their area, not just the research available to them via
   the subscriptions their institution offers.

All members of the UKPMC Funders Group have now announced official policies requiring recipients to deposit research articles in UKPMC, with the exception of Cancer Research UK whose policy is currently under review.

BioMed Central maintains a full list of  biomedical funder policies on open access, and we welcome funders to get in touch with any additions or corrections.