The Howard Hughes Medical Institute will be requiring its researchers to make their work immediately accessible to the public, ScienceInsider reports. Currently, HHMI requires researchers to make their work open access following an embargo period.
According to ScienceInsider, HHMI President Erin O'Shea says that delay is problematic for science. "Science is critically dependent on access to the information, data, and ideas contained in published primary research articles," she adds in a statement. "We believe we can best advance HHMI's mission, including the discovery and sharing of new scientific knowledge, by sharing new science freely and immediately. We want all scientists to be able to discuss, analyze, and build upon each other's work."
HHMI's new requirements, which go into effect January 2022, are in line with those from the open-access initiative Plan S. ScienceInsider notes, though, that the immediate access requirement may prevent researchers from publishing in prestigious journals unless their publishers make changes. It adds that Springer Nature plans to make its journals compliant with Plan S and that the American Association for the Advancement of Science is exploring allowing the posting of near-final versions of papers to an archive.