Gates Foundation Open Access Policy

The Gates Foundation's 2025 Open Access Policy

Information correct as of 2 July 2025

 

 

Effective January 1, 2025, the Gates Foundation Open Access (OA) Policy mandates that all research funded by the foundation be openly accessible and reusable, including any underlying data sets.

  • This policy applies to all grants awarded from January 1, 2015, onward.
  • Does not impact where and when grantees can publish – however, is a preprint version of the research must be publicly available.

 

“The foundation requires that grantees post either a preprint or deposit their author-accepted manuscript (AAM) to be compliant … In either case, the preprint or AAM needs to be immediately available with a CC BY license and accompanied by a data availability statement… preference is that both the preprint and the AAM are freely and openly available...”

 

 

Key Components:

  • Preprint Requirement: Funded manuscripts must be shared promptly as preprints on recognized servers, unless ethical, safety, or other legitimate concerns apply.
  • Repository Deposit: Accepted articles must be deposited immediately upon publication in PubMed Central/another openly accessible repository, with metadata identifying Gates funding.
  • Licensing: All funded manuscripts must be made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) or equivalent.
  • Data Accessibility: Underlying data supporting the manuscripts should be made accessible as soon as possible, adhering to ethical, legal, or regulatory requirements.
  • Article processing charges (APC): The Foundation will not cover APC. Publication fees are the responsibility of the grantees and their co-authors.
  • Compliance: Compliance is a condition of funding. This OA policy applies to all (partly or fully) funded manuscripts. Compliance will be continuously reviewed, and grantees and authors will be contacted when they are non-compliant.
  • Acknowledgement: Grantees should include the following acknowledgment in Funded Manuscripts: “This work was supported, in whole or in part, by the 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.”

 

VeriXiv:
(contact emma.smith@verixiv.org or publishing@f1000.com if you have any questions about VeriXiv)

  • VeriXiv is a verified preprint platform, intended to support faster dissemination of research, promote research integrity, ensure equitable access to research data and promote an inclusive research ecosystem.
  • Features include rigorous pre-publication checks of: Authorship, Publishing Ethics, Research Integrity and Open Research.
  • Following submission on VeriXiv, researchers can:
    • Leave the work as a verified preprint on VeriXiv and submit to a different journal

OR

    • Have the work transparently peer reviewed on VeriXiv, with the final version of record published on Gates Open Research once the preprint passes peer review
      • Authors can opt in to the peer review process upon preprint publication
      • VeriXiv’s editorial team secure expert reviewers for the preprint (authors can make suggestions)
      • The reviews are published alongside the article with the reviewers’ name attached, and authors can respond to those reviews
      • Authors can revise and submit a new version of their preprint
      • Articles that pass peer review are published on Gates Open Research
  • VeriXiv supports all article types (reviews, study protocols, method article, research notes, data notes, software tools, research articles), is fully typeset, all figures are embedded and can be downloaded, provides various usage metrics
  • Common concerns addressed in webinar (with counterpoints):
    • Target journal might not accept pre-prints: Most mainstream journals do allow submissions that have been accepted as pre-prints.
    • Preprints do not have impact factors (IF): True, however, growing recognition that IF not necessarily reliable measure of impact, other ways to measure engagement and impact, VeriXiv provides alternative metrics.
    • Preprint is not peer-reviewed/could be used for misinformation: Growing understanding of meaning of “not yet peer-reviewed”. Preprints also serve a different purpose than peer-reviewed journal articles – intended to share research quickly, whereas journals are slower but perform in-depth review and validation of the research content.
    • Could be scooped: say not the case, get in early, stake claim. Preprints receive a DOI, making them a permanent and citable part of the scholarly record -researchers have direct evidence of their research outputs even before completing the full journal peer review cycle.
    • Could attract negative public comments: This could happen anywhere, including following conventional peer-reviewed publication; comments and reviews on VeriXiv are moderated, tend to be more balanced & constructive - reviewers know that their reviews will be posted publicly with the reviewers’ name attached. Authors can respond to reviewer comments directly and revise their preprint, reviewers asked to provide updated reviews for new version of preprint.
  • Benefits of pre-prints:
    • Verified preprint demonstrates integrity of research
    • Comply with Gates Foundation OA policy
    • Allow others to cite your research ahead of publication
    • Prevent your work from being scooped by staking early claim
    • Enhance grant applications (show evidence of research output)
    • Makes your research openly and freely available to all
    • Get valuable feedback before submission- commenting function allows active engagement
    • Publish revised versions as research develops
    • Early sharing especially beneficial for early career researchers, particularly since some funders are allowing preprints to be included in grant proposals and reports

 

Sources:

 

VeriXiv webinar recording:

VeriXiv:

More information about preprints:

Gates Foundation Open Access Policy:

Gates Open Research:

Open Research Africa: