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Policy of the Society for General Microbiology towards author self-archiving on PubMed Central and institutional and other repositories

A number of research funders have announced policies mandating or recommending authors to archive their published papers on PubMed Central or on institutional or other repositories, and others are in the process of formulating such policies.

For instance, the modified version of the Public Access policy of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) takes effect on 7 April 2008 for papers accepted for publication on or after that date. This policy requires that grant holders deposit all papers published as a result of NIH funding in PubMed Central not less than 12 months after print publication. Similarly, the Wellcome Trust has announced a policy whereby authors are required to deposit the published version of their papers in PubMed Central within 6 months of publication; until 1 October 2006 this policy only affected papers that resulted from grants awarded on or after 1 October 2005, but as of 1 October 2006 it affects all papers that result from Wellcome Trust grants.

Papers published in Microbiology, Journal of General Virology and Journal of Medical Microbiology are already freely available through open access at HighWire Press 12 months after publication, and papers published in International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology are freely available 24 months after publication; however, the SGM recognizes that some authors may wish to or be obliged to deposit a version of their paper in PubMed Central or other repositories at some point after online publication.

To allow authors to comply with these requirements, the SGM has introduced the Open Option scheme. More information about the scheme is available here.

For those authors who pay the Open Option fee

If authors pay the Open Option fee of £1500 (plus VAT where applicable):

• their paper will be available free, without a subscription, through the journal website immediately on online publication, and

• SGM will arrange for the published article to be deposited in PubMed Central, with this version of the paper being freely accessible on publication of the definitive version in the online journal, to comply with the requirements of the Wellcome Trust and other funding bodies. Authors may also deposit the PDF version of the published paper in an institutional repository at this point.

For those authors who do not pay the Open Option fee

For authors who do not pay the Open Option fee, their papers will be made freely available without a subscription 12 months after publication, as at present.

In addition, the copyright transfer agreement/licence to publish that authors must sign before publishing in the journal has been modified to give permission for deposit of the accepted manuscript (not the published PDF) in PubMed Central or in another institutional or other repository without paying the Open Option fee, subject to the following conditions:

• Irrespective of when the manuscript is deposited, the depositor must ensure that this version of the manuscript must not be made publicly available until 12 months after final publication if they have not paid the Open Option fee.

• The version that is deposited must correspond exactly to the version of the manuscript that is accepted for publication in the journal. Authors must not deposit the PDF of the published version of their manuscript if they have not paid the Open Option fee.

• The corresponding author (or the grant holder, if different) should inform the Editorial Office at the earliest opportunity that they intend to deposit the manuscript in PubMed Central or another (named) repository if it is accepted for publication.

• It is a condition of acceptance for publication in the journal that the following text must appear on the title page of any author manuscript that is deposited in PubMed Central or other repository:

  This is an author manuscript that has been accepted for publication in Journal of General Virology, copyright Society for General Microbiology, but has not been copy-edited, formatted or proofed. Cite this article as appearing in Journal of General Virology. This version of the manuscript may not be duplicated or reproduced, other than for personal use or within the rule of 'Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials' (section 17, Title 17, US Code), without permission from the copyright owner, Society for General Microbiology. The Society for General Microbiology disclaims any responsibility or liability for errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or in any version derived from it by any other parties. The final copy-edited, published article, which is the version of record, can be found at http://vir.sgmjournals.org, and is freely available without a subscription.

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• When the manuscript is deposited in PubMed Central or another repository, the depositor should inform the Editorial Office that the deposit has been made and should confirm that this version will not be made available until 12 months after final publication if they have not paid the Open Option fee.

Authors are reminded that failure to abide by these conditions may constitute a breach of the copyright transfer agreement and licence to publish. 'Final publication' refers to publication of the copy-edited and typeset paper in the journal and not inclusion in our Papers in Press scheme.

Editorial Office staff will not make deposits in PubMed Central or other repositories on behalf of authors who have not paid the Open Option fee, and Editorial Office staff are not in a position to answer specific questions about the process of repository deposit.

Last updated 18 February 2009