After years of requiring Open Access, it looks like the foundation is abandoning it. Isn’t this a regressive policy?

Open Access is still imperative for the foundation’s funded outputs. Grantees are still required to post preprints OA and CC BY or deposit their accepted manuscripts in PubMed Central (PMC). But Open Access as it is done now hasn’t changed for ten years and in fact has given rise to some unsavory publishing practices by poor actors (paper mills, questionable quality review, unchecked pricing). This has caused the foundation to rethink how it supports Open Access to better achieve its goals of immediate access, global reuse, and equitable action. 

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Questions about Open Access? 

Please visit the Gates Foundation Open Access Policy site, https://openaccess.gatesfoundation.org/, or contact us at [e-mail].  Sign up for UNLOCKED - Open Access Newsletter to keep up with news and announcements.