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Under Springer’s Open Choice program, articles are immediately published with full open access and deposited in repositories such as PubMed at a flat-rate fee per article.
Under Springer’s Open Choice program, articles are immediately published with full open access and deposited in repositories such as PubMed at a flat-rate fee per article.


The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has expressed support for Springer’s Open Choice program whereby articles are—if accepted for publication after a process of rigorous peer-review—immediately published with full open access and deposited in repositories such as PubMed Central, at a flat-rate fee per article of $3,000. Springer’s Open Choice programme applies to all its journals.

HHMI has a strong commitment to ensuring public access to original research articles. Beginning with papers submitted for publication after January 1, 2008, HHMI will require its scientists to publish their original research articles in journals that allow the articles and supplementary materials to be made freely accessible in a public repository within six months of publication.

HHMI is the largest private funder of biomedical research in the U.S. and commits more than $500 million a year for research and distributes $80 million in grant support for science education.

HHMI investigators already publish a significant number of research articles in open access journals or in journals with open access options. Under the new policy, HHMI will pay up to $2,000 in open access charges per article with the balance coming from laboratory budgets or other sources.

With Springer Open Choice the authors decide how their articles are published in Springer journals. As with all other articles, Springer Open Choice articles are peer-reviewed, professionally produced, and available in both print and electronic versions on SpringerLink. In addition, every article will be registered in CrossRef and included in the appropriate Abstracting and Indexing services. In Springer Open Choice, authors are not required to transfer their copyright to Springer; instead, these articles are published under a Creative Commons License.

Founded in 1953 by Howard R. Hughes, the aviator and industrialist, Howard Hughes Medical Institute is headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and employs more than 2,600 individuals across the U.S. It has an endowment of $16.3 billion.

Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.comexternal link, opens in a new tab) is one of the world’s leading suppliers of scientific and specialist literature. It is the second-largest publisher of journals in the science, technology, and medicine (STM) sector, the largest publisher of STM books and the largest business-to-business publisher in the German-language area. The group publishes over 1,700 journals and more than 5,500 new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook Collection worldwide. Springer has operations in about 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and some 5,000 employees. In 2006, it generated annual sales of around EUR 924 million.