2025 Open Access Policy

Purpose

In January 2015, we introduced our Open Access policy to enable unrestricted access and reuse of all peer-reviewed published research funded, in whole or in part, by the foundation.

In January 2021, this policy was updated to be consistent with the key principles of Plan S. As a member of cOAlition S, the foundation is committed to working in partnership with other funders to make all research articles open by default.

Effective January 1, 2025, this policy has been expanded to apply to all published research funded, in whole or in part, by the foundation (“Funded Manuscripts”). The Open Access policy also applies to any data underlying the Funded Manuscripts.

These updates maintain the original intent of the Open Access policy and will broaden the reach and impact of the vital research we fund to continue our mission to improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Scope

The policy is effective for all grants awarded from January 1, 2015 and will apply to all Funded Manuscripts starting January 1, 2025.

It is the foundation’s expectation that Funded Manuscripts shall be shared promptly in the form of a preprint, which is a version of a manuscript hosted on a public server prior to formal peer review, except where the grantee determines that a preprint is not appropriate due to ethical, safety or other legitimate concerns.

This policy also applies to the dissemination of Funded Manuscripts generated by foundation employees.

This policy does not apply to works of opinion, such as ‘white papers’, key learnings reports, policy positions, etc. Such works shall be disseminated in accordance with the terms of the applicable funding agreement with the foundation, but are still encouraged to be as accessible and open as possible.

Policy

Funded Manuscripts subject to the Open Access Policy should contain the following elements:

  1. Funded Manuscripts Will Be Available. As soon as possible and to the extent feasible, Funded Manuscripts shall be published as a preprint in a preprint server recognized by the foundation or preapproved preprint server which applies a sufficient level of scrutiny to submissions. Accepted articles shall be deposited immediately upon publication in PubMed Central (PMC), or in another openly accessible repository, with proper metadata tagging identifying Gates funding. In addition, grantees shall disseminate Funded Manuscripts as described in their funding agreements with the foundation, including as described in any proposal or Global Access commitments.
  2. Dissemination of Funded Manuscripts Will Be On “Open Access” Terms. All Funded Manuscripts, including any subsequent updates to key conclusions, shall be available immediately, without any embargo, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) or an equivalent license. This will permit all users to copy, redistribute, transform, and build on the material in any medium or format for any purpose (including commercial) without further permission or fees being required.
  3. Gates Grantees Will Retain Copyright. Grantees shall retain sufficient copyright in Funded Manuscripts to ensure such Funded Manuscripts are deposited into an open-access repository and published under the CC-BY 4.0 or equivalent license.
  4. Underlying Data Will Be Accessible Immediately. The Foundation requires that underlying data supporting the Funded Manuscripts shall be made accessible immediately and as open as possible upon availability of the Funded Manuscripts, subject to any applicable ethical, legal, or regulatory requirements or restrictions. All Funded Manuscripts must be accompanied by an Underlying Data Availability Statement that describes where any primary data, associated metadata, original software, and any additional relevant materials or information necessary to understand, assess, and replicate the Funded Manuscripts findings in totality can be found. Grantees are encouraged to adhere to the FAIR principles to improve the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reuse of digital assets.
  5. The Foundation Will Not Pay Article Processing Charges (APC). Any publication fees are the responsibility of the grantees and their co-authors.
  6. Compliance Is A Requirement of Funding. This Open Access policy applies to all Funded Manuscripts, whether the funding is in whole or in part. Compliance will be continuously reviewed, and grantees and authors will be contacted when they are non-compliant.
    • As appropriate, Grantees should include the following acknowledgment and notice in Funded Manuscripts:
    • “This work was supported, in whole or in part, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [Grant number]. The conclusions and opinions expressed in this work are those of the author(s) alone and shall not be attributed to the Foundation. Under the grant conditions of the Foundation, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License has already been assigned to the Author Accepted Manuscript version that might arise from this submission. Please note works submitted as a preprint have not undergone a peer review process.”

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