Unlocked Issue 6 | August 2025
August 20, 2025
Welcome to UNLOCKED
The Gates Foundation Open Access Newsletter
August 2025 | In This Issue
> Advancing Equity in Research Publishing Through Open Access Partnerships
> Did You Know? NIH Mandates Immediate Public Access Starting July 1, 2025
Advancing Equity in Research Publishing Through Open Access Partnerships
A core pillar of the foundation’s refreshed Open Access Policy is our commitment to supporting models and infrastructure that promote more equitable and inclusive practices in research publishing. By investing in systems that prioritize accessibility, transparency, and author empowerment, we aim to help reshape the publishing ecosystem in ways that benefit researchers, institutions, and communities around the world.
As part of this commitment, the foundation is partnering with a range of innovative platforms and organizations that are driving change. Featured among these are:
> VeriXiv – a mission-driven preprint server designed to increase early visibility and global access to health-related research.
> PLOS (Public Library of Science) – a pioneer in open-access publishing, working with funders to create more sustainable and equitable publishing models.
> PREreview – a platform focused on community-driven, open peer review to foster more diverse and constructive feedback on preprints.
> Editage – a global communications partner offering editorial and language support to help researchers—especially those from underrepresented regions—prepare high-quality, open-access-ready manuscripts.
These partnerships reflect our broader strategy to lower barriers to publishing and to democratize knowledge sharing.
Learn more about our Open Access collaborations and initiatives.
Did You Know? NIH Mandates Immediate Public Access Starting July 1, 2025
Effective July 1, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is implementing a significant update to its Public Access Policy that will affect all NIH-funded research.
Under the new policy, all peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025 must be made immediately available to the public in PubMed Central, with no embargo period. This represents a major shift from the previous policy, which permitted a 12-month delay before public release.
Additionally, authors must grant the NIH a government-wide, royalty-free license to their accepted manuscripts. This ensures NIH can distribute the work without restriction, further supporting its mission to promote open science and equitable access to publicly funded research.
By removing embargoes and enabling instant availability, the NIH aims to accelerate discovery, collaboration, and innovation—benefiting not only researchers but also clinicians, educators, and the general public. For more details, visit the NIH Public Access Policy update.
Spotlight: PREreview
Looking for early feedback on your preprint? Want to contribute your expertise to support others in your field?
Join PREreview—a global community committed to making scholarly peer review more open, collaborative, and equitable.
At PREreview.org, you can:
- Request feedback on your own preprint.
- Review preprints in your field that matter to you.
Join a PREreview Club aligned with your research interests. - Learn and grow through collaborative Live Reviews and training opportunities for individuals and organizations.
We especially honor and elevate the expertise of early-career researchers and those from historically excluded communities. At PREreview, your contributions are recognized as essential to shaping a more inclusive and impactful future for science.
Be part of a movement to transform scholarly communication—join us today! Learn more at PREreview.org
Thoughts & Talks
News and Responses to the 2025 Open Access Policy Refresh
Webinar:
The Gates Foundation’s 2025 Open Access Policy Refresh: Introducing VeriXiv, Wednesday September 24th 1:00AM – 2:00AM PDT | REGISTER
In this webinar, we will explain the changes to the Gates Foundation’s open access policy that came into effect from January 2025, including the requirement for all Gates-funded research to be published as a preprint. We will explain what preprints are, why they are valuable, and the ways that preprints can support you to disseminate your research findings quickly and transparently, while promoting unrestricted access and reuse of research funded by the Foundation.
To support grantees to comply with the revised policy, F1000 partnered with the Foundation to launch VeriXiv in August 2024: a new verified preprint platform that improves research integrity while enabling the rapid availability of research. We will explain how the verified preprint model improves on existing preprint services by introducing robust integrity checks to ensure the trustworthiness of outputs that are disseminated in advance of formal peer review. This will include an introduction to the VeriXiv submissions workflow, the pre-publication checks, and the post-VeriXiv routes for peer review and publication of your version of record article. We will also be joined by a Gates Foundation grantee and author, Dr. Augustino Hellar (Africa Academy for Public Health, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania), who will offer his perspective on using VeriXiv to share several preprint research outputs. REGISTER
Video:
New Creative Commons Video: Open Licensing to Expand Your Impact” | Watch Now
Your research has the power to inspire innovation, spark collaboration, and tackle global challenges. Creative Commons’ new video explores how openly licensing your work can amplify its reach, expand access to knowledge, and strengthen the global scientific community. Learn how CC licenses work, why CC BY is the most open option, and how you can keep your rights while enabling reuse, translation, and adaptation across borders. Watch now and learn more at creativecommons.org.
Article:
The Future of Science Publishing | Read More
A U-turn by the Gates Foundation leaves questions about the gold open-access model. Read More in the June 25th 2025 Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN)