President’s OfficeOpen Access to Publications
Purpose and Scope
This policy establishes HHMI’s expectations relating to open access of publications resulting fromresearch in HHMI laboratories. This policy applies to all lab heads employed by HHMI, which
includes HHMI Investigators, Freeman Hrabowski Scholars, Janelia Research Campus groupleaders, senior group leaders, senior fellows, and theory fellows.

Effective Date
This policy is effective for articles submitted for publication on or after January 1, 2022. Articles
submitted for publication before that date are covered by HHMI’s Public Access to Publications
Policy.
For HHMI lab heads appointed after January 1, 2022, this policy is effective for articles submitted
for publication on or after the date their HHMI employment starts.

PolicyOpen License Publication Requirement
HHMI lab heads must make any original, peer-reviewed research articles with a major contribution(definitions below) from an HHMI lab freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International (CC BY 4.0) Public License by the publication date. Creative Commons licenses
carrying restrictions such as NC (no commercial reuse) or ND (no derivatives) are not compliant
with HHMI’s Open Access to Publications Policy. The goal of this policy is to ensure that HHMI
research is shared with immediate open access and without restrictions on subsequent use soscientists can build on one another’s work to accelerate discovery.
Peer-reviewed research article: An article describing original research findings or novel protocols andmethods. This policy does not apply to review articles, reviews of existing protocols and methods,
perspectives, commentaries, and other articles that are not focused on sharing original researchfindings or novel protocols and methods.
Major contribution: A contribution to a publication from an HHMI lab is considered major if an
HHMI lab head or lab member is listed as first, last, or corresponding author or as a first, last, orcorresponding coauthor on the publication.
An HHMI lab head can meet the requirements of this policy for a specific research article in thefollowing ways:• Option 1: Publishing the “version of record” (the version that is published by the journal) undera CC BY 4.0 license so that it is immediately and freely available to the public by the publication

date. For example, open access journals typically offer a CC BY 4.0 license option and make thearticles they publish immediately and freely available.
• Option 2: Depositing the “author-accepted manuscript” (the version accepted by the journal
after peer review) in PubMed Central or another HHMI-designated repository under a CC BY
4.0 license so that it is immediately and freely available to the public upon publication of theversion of record in the journal. This option applies to journals like subscription journals which
do not publish the journal article (i.e., the version of record) under a CC BY 4.0 license. If thejournal does not deposit the author-accepted manuscript in a repository on behalf of theauthors, it is the responsibility of the HHMI author(s) to ensure that the author-accepted
manuscript is available under a CC BY 4.0 license by the publication date. The Nonexclusive
License Agreement for Open Access to Publications positions HHMI labs for compliance withthis policy.
Articles on preprint servers: HHMI lab heads are also encouraged to consider depositing articles on apublicly accessible preprint server, such as bioRxiv. HHMI recognizes articles deposited on publiclyaccessible preprint servers as evidence of productivity and will accept them for purposes such as labhead reviews. If the article shared on a preprint server is never published as a peer-reviewed article,
availability of the version on the preprint server under a CC BY 4.0 license will satisfy therequirements of this policy; however, publication on a preprint server, even under a CC BY 4.0
license, will not be sufficient to satisfy the requirements of this policy if these articles aresubsequently submitted to a journal for peer review and publication and are accepted and published.
In such cases, either the version of record or the author-accepted manuscript published in thejournal must be made available in an HHMI-designated repository under a CC BY 4.0 license by thepublication date.

Data/Code Availability Statement
All articles subject to this policy must include a data/code availability statement detailing how dataand code integral to the publication can be accessed.

Use of HHMI Budget for Publication Charges
For original, peer-reviewed research articles with major contributions from an HHMI lab that aresubmitted for publication on or after January 1, 2022 (and therefore subject to this policy), HHMIlab heads:• May use their HHMI budget to pay publication fees charged by open access journals and by“hybrid” journals that have committed to a full transition to an open access model on atimeline acceptable to HHMI. Hybrid journals impose access charges on readers (e.g.,subscriptions) and also charge authors extra to have articles published under an open license.
For this purpose, hybrid journals are considered committed to a full transition to an openaccess model on an acceptable timeline only if they are considered “complianttransformative journals” according to the global initiative on open access initially launched inEurope and known as Plan S. Transformative journal status can be checked using the Plan S
Journal Checker Tool.
• May not use their HHMI budget to pay for open access fees charged by hybrid journals thathave not committed to a full transition to an open access model, or have not committed tosuch a transition on a timeline acceptable to HHMI. One way to publish in these journals
and comply with this policy is to deposit the author-accepted manuscript in PubMed Central
under a CC BY 4.0 license so that it is immediately and freely available to the public.

Additional Guidance
HHMI lab heads can find additional information that may be helpful in complying with this policyon Hughes Hub under About Us > Scientific Publishing.

Related Procedures, Forms and Policies•

Public Access to Publications (effective until 12/31/2021)•Open Access Policy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Hughes Hub•

Nonexclusive License Agreement for Open Access to Publications

Contact
Any questions about HHMI’s expectations relating to open access to publications resulting fromresearch by HHMI lab heads (as defined above) should be submitted to oapolicy@hhmi.org. HHMI
Investigators and Freeman Hrabowski Scholars may also submit questions to their scientific officer
or HHMI attorney responsible for their host site. Janelia lab heads may reach out to Nelson
Spruston, Chief of Janelia Scientific Operations and Programs, or James Benson, the HHMI
attorney responsible for Janelia.

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Issued by: President’s Office
Issue Date: 10/1/2020Effective Date: 1/1/2022
Last Reviewed: 02/14/2024

Last Updated: 02/14/2024