How does the new policy lead to a more equitable open access publishing system for all?

Read more about  how the policy changes can lead to a more equitable open access publishing system for all globally in a February 2025 blog post, Rethinking Equity in Open Access: The Gates Foundation’s Policy Refresh.

A few important factors to consider include:

• The policy no longer requires that the journal version of record be made open access. Thus, grantees can publish in a majority of journals without facing APCs by publishing behind a subscription paywall. Posting a preprint or an Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) does not incur cost for authors. We acknowledge that this negatively impacts fully open access journals and publishers.
• We have prioritized partnering with the Public Library of Science (PLOS) as a non-profit high quality open science focused publisher. Grantees can continue to publish in all PLOS journals without facing an APC. 
• We encourage grantee authors to seek waivers for APCs. Publishers/journals need to be more engaged in removing barriers to open access publishing. While waivers are not equitable they are an important mechanism to leverage until broader change is achieved. 
• Many of our grantees in Africa and India would like to publish in local journals and often these journals operate under the Diamond Open Access model. Meaning that there is no cost to publish or read research within these journals. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a great resource to discover these journals. 

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Questions about Open Access? 

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