The Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI) has announced the launch of a new fund to support free and unrestricted access to scholarly research papers on genomics published in high impact journals. The OGI Genomics Publication Fund (GPF) will contribute up to $3,000 per publication to genomics researchers wishing to make their papers available as Open Access from the earliest date of publication.
The GPF is open to researchers at Ontario-based academic, industry or government institutions. The fund aims to offer easy and timely access to key genomics publications by all stakeholders (funders, the scientific community, students, teachers and other interested parties); and to increase the profile, visibility and citations of genomics research conducted in the province and published in top international journals. OGI expects to support up to 35 Open Access publications over the next 12 months, either reimbursing special fees charged by traditional publishers to make individual manuscripts Open Access from the earliest date of publication, or defraying publication costs for manuscripts published in Open Access journals.
Several leading life science research funders, such as the National Institutes of Health, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Wellcome Trust, require that publications resulting from research funded by them be made available Open Access. Many journals, including Nature and Cell, have agreements with one or more of these funders to make any required publication Open Access within a defined time frame, either free of charge after a longer period or for a nominal fee beforehand.
Currently, though some Canadian funders have policies requiring Open Access availability for publications reporting research they have supported, no Canadian funders have announced securing such agreements with the publishers of these journals. It is hoped that the launch of the OGI Genomics Publication Fund will encourage funders, publishers and researchers to establish Open Access publication as the default practice. Applications for the GPF can be submitted any time and support will be given on a first come, first served basis.
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