Biomedical groups demand open access for industry authors

Push for commercial researchers to have same publishing rights as academic colleagues

A group of biomedical researchers and charities has called on academic publishers to allow those funded by the private sector to publish their papers with immediate open access.

At present, several journals offer only non-commercial researchers the most permissive open access and reuse licences, according to communications firm Oxford PharmaGenesis. The consultancy says that 21 journals it surveyed from major academic publishers offered immediate open access with a CC-BY licence, but only one made this available to those on the commercial side.