Open it up: scientific publishing 2017-03-25 | Espresso

"The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will from today pay the cost of putting research it supports in a repository of freely available papers. The announcement follows a policy introduced in January, stipulating that research it funds must be accessible to all without charge: so-called open-access publishing. Journals have been the principal means of disseminating science since the 17th century, but many still charge hefty subscription fees, and it can take years to publish. That keeps others in the dark about new results, slowing scientific progress. The foundation will now direct beneficiaries of its $4bn-a-year largesse towards a repository set up last year by the Wellcome Trust (the world’s second-largest medical-research charity, after Gates), which puts publications in public view during the editorial-review process. That will add great weight to the open-access effort, and contribute to a future for scientific publication that, if not completely journal-free, is likely to be 'journal-lite'."