BioMed Central Announces OA Publishing Agreement with HHMI

BioMed Central Announces Open Access Publishing Agreement
with 
HHMI

HMMI to centrally fund publications by its researchers in
BioMed 
Central's open access journals

bond and CHEVY CHASE, MD, August, 20, 2007--BioMed Central,
the 
world's largest publisher of open access scientific
journals, and 
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) today announced a

membership agreement under which HHMI will pay the article 
processing charges for all research published by HHMI 
investigators in BioMed Central journals. Articles published

under this agreement will be made immediately and freely 
available on the web in their final published form, and will
be 
deposited in international archives including PubMed Central

(PMC). The agreement between HHMI and BioMed Central takes
effect 
for articles submitted after September 1, 2007.

This agreement complements HHMI's recently announced open
access 
policy, which requires that the results of research funded
by the 
Institute must be deposited in PubMed Central, the National

Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of
biomedical and 
life sciences journal literature, not more than six months
after 
publication.

"BioMed Central is pleased to partner with HHMI,
helping it to 
maximize the impact and visibility of the research it funds
by 
encouraging open access publication," said Dr. Matt
Cockerill, 
publisher of BioMed Central. "Many HHMI researchers
already 
publish in BioMed Central's journals, and this new agreement

further emphasizes HHMI's commitment to making its
scientists' 
research results freely available to the public and the 
international scientific community."

The BioMed Central postpay membership option chosen by HHMI

offers the choice of quarterly or monthly invoicing, and
provides 
detailed reporting on the research articles which have been

published under the scheme.

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For more information on BioMed Central's Membership schemes,
see: 
h
ttp://www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/membership. 
Alternatively, contact Charlotte Webber (Press Office) by
phone 
+44 (0)20 7631 9980 or via email pressbiomedcentral.com

About Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)

HHMI is one of the world's largest philanthropies, with 
laboratories across the United States and grants programs 
throughout the world. The Institute is a nonprofit medical 
research organization that employs hundreds of leading
biomedical 
scientists working at the forefront of their fields. In
addition, 
through its grants program and other activities, HHMI is
helping 
to enhance science education at all levels and maintain the
vigor 
of biomedical science worldwide. HHMI's endowment at the end
of 
the 2006 fiscal year was approximately $16.3 billion.

About BioMed Central

BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral
.com) is an independent 
online publishing house committed to providing immediate
access 
without charge to the peer-reviewed biological and medical 
research it publishes. This commitment is based on the view
that 
open access to research is essential to the rapid and
efficient 
communication of science. In addition to open-access
original 
research, BioMed Central also publishes reviews and other 
subscription-based content.

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