A hybrid journal is one where a subscription-based journal allows authors to make individual articles open access immediately upon payment of an article processing charge.
If your selected journal is a hybrid title, the foundation will not pay the open access fees. You have several options available to you to obtain compliance with the foundation’s Open Access policy:
- Rights Retention: Publish your article in this journal, but do not select open access. No publishing fees will apply for this route. Upon publication, upload your accepted manuscript to an open repository with a CC BY license and you will be compliant. Please ensure that the following acknowledgment is included in your published article:
“This work was supported, in whole or in part, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [Grant Number]. Under the grant conditions of the Foundation, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License has already been assigned to the Author Accepted Manuscript version that might arise from this submission.”
- Alternative Funds: Locate funds from alternative sources, such as your institution or co-authors, in order to pay the open access fees.
- Other Options: Talk to the publisher about other options, such as fee waivers and transfers to gold OA or transformative journals.
- Find Another Journal: You can use the Journal Checker Tool to identify a compliant journal for your work.
We understand that some grantees have run into issues following the Rights Retention route. The foundation’s policy was set with the understanding that the grant agreement requires grantees to retain sufficient rights to publish their accepted manuscript openly (without embargo and CC BY) regardless of the journal. Some publishers have modified their publishing agreements so that there is now a potential conflict with the grant agreement and puts grantees in the awkward position of deciding which agreement they will violate.
The foundation cannot provide legal advice regarding the implications and risks associated with your specific agreements with publishers. Please consult with your institution’s legal advisors to identify any potential issues with your compliance with the Open Access Policy and other obligations to the foundation under the grant agreement. You and your advisors will need to evaluate the specific facts and circumstances to determine an appropriate path forward which may include, but is not limited to, publishing in a different journal, using non-foundation funds to pay open access fees associated with hybrid journals (i.e. non-Gold Open Access), or seeking a waiver of such fees from the publisher.
Questions about Open Access?
Please visit the Gates Foundation Open Access Policy site, https://openaccess.gatesfoundation.org/, or contact us at openaccess@gatesfoundation.org. Sign up for UNLOCKED - Open Access Newsletter to keep up with news and announcements.