The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Elsevier have established an agreement to make author manuscripts of articles published in Elsevier and Cell Press journals publicly available six months following final publication. It takes effect for articles published after September 1, 2007.

“This agreement speaks to our shared commitment to making research results freely available to the public and the international scientific community, as well as the significance of Cell Press and Elsevier journals to the communication of research discoveries,” said Thomas R. Cech, president of HHMI.

YS Chi, Vice Chairman of Elsevier, said: “The agreement reflects Elsevier’s and HHMI’s common goal of advancing scientific, technical and medical communication, while protecting the sustainability and integrity of scientific publishing and the peer review process.”

Elsevier will deposit author manuscripts of original research articles, along with an article’s supplemental data, on which any HHMI scientist is an author—including HHMI investigators, group leaders and fellows at the Janelia Farm Research Campus, and other institute employees—to PubMed Central (PMC), the digital archive of biomedical and life sciences literature maintained by the National Institutes of Health. The author manuscript has been through the peer review process and accepted for publication, but has not undergone editing and formatting.

As part of the agreement, HHMI will pay Elsevier for the depositing service. Individual scientists will not be charged and HHMI will make quarterly payments to Elsevier based on the number of articles published.

The agreement with Elsevier and Cell Press comes as the Institute prepares to adopt a new policy that will require HHMI scientists to publish original research articles in journals that allow articles to be made freely accessible through PMC within six months of publication.