The announcement that the Journal of Visualized Experiments – JoVE – has moved from an open access model, to a subscription-based model, has attracted much comment in the blogosphere, as can be seen from the postings at the Nature Network, and the Scholarly Kitchen blogs.
As a consequence of moving to a subscription service, content from JoVE at PMC and UKPMC is now embargoed for two years.
Conscious that this change in policy means that no researcher funded by any of the UKPMC Funders can seek publication in this journal – the maximum permissible embargo set by these funders is 6 months – the Wellcome Trust has spoken with JoVE’s Editor-in-Chief to determine whether any alternative publishing options are available.
Though the details have not yet been fully worked out, it seems likely that JoVE will offer a “Wellcome-compliant” author-pays, open access option.
A Wellcome-compliant, author-pays, OA option, is one where the publisher deposits the final version of the paper (or video in this case) directly in PMC, and attaches a licence to the paper (video) which allows others to re-use this content. Publishers may impose conditions on users in relation to attribution (i.e. users must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor) and commercial use (i.e. specify that the work must not be used for commercial purposes).
When the details of the OA, author-pays option have been determined, this blog post will be updated.
