Research Funded by Autism Speaks to be Open Access

Autism Speaks, the largest autism advocacy organization in the U.S., recently announced the new policy that effective December 3, 2008 all researchers in receipt of funding from Autism Speaks will be required to deposit any resulting peer-reviewed research papers in the PubMed Central digital repository, whence they will be freely accessible to anyone with internet access. PubMed Central will make the papers available to the public within 12 months of journal publication. This new policy is firmly in line with the National Institutes of Health mandate.

From Autism Speaks’ 13 November, 2008 press release:

Posting articles on PubMed Central not only makes the results of research more accessible, it also integrates them with other research and data, making it easier for scientists worldwide to pursue autism research and make discoveries. Equally important, families, clinicians, patients, educators, and students reap the benefits by having open access to Autism Speaks-funded research. PubMed Central's trusted repository of full-text biomedical journal articles is freely available online at www.pubmedcentral.gov.

While families are now able to view a wide range of information about autism research online, they often do not have easy access to primary sources, including peer-reviewed scientific literature. This new policy will allow everyone to access complete articles that in the past may have been available only through fee-based journals.