Managing gold open access
Licence types and eligibility
As stated in Cochrane's editorial policy on open access and explained in the open access informational page, authors can choose to pay an article publication charge (APC) to publish a protocol, review, update or editorial as gold open access (open access immediately upon publication). Some author teams will be eligible for an APC waiver.
Three types of gold open access licence for publication forms are available to authors:
- CC BY (attribution) – At Cochrane, this option is available only to authors with a funder mandate to use the CC BY licence
- CC BY-NC (attribution and non-commercial use)
- CC BY-NC-ND (attribution, non-commercial use, and no derivatives)
Initiating gold open access
Authors are made aware in the editorial policy on open access that they should contact the managing editor to discuss gold open access early in the process, before signing the licence for publication form. Managing Editors will need to liaise with David Hives (dhives@wiley.com; Cochrane Production Manager, Wiley) and use the template emails stored in Editorial Manager for communication with authors in the scenarios described here.
Scenario 1: Payment of article publication charge (APC)
- Author team wants to pay the APC for gold open access.
- Contact author alerts Managing Editor.
- Managing Editor sends template email from Editorial Manager that explains open access licence for publication form options and payment information to author; author team and David Hives (dhives@wiley.com; Cochrane Production Manager, Wiley) are copied in to template. [See template email for scenario 1 below to explain the process, costs and mandated roles.] (See also Licence for Publication forms: group sites.)
- Author lets Managing Editor know which open access licence for publication form the team would like or is mandated to use.
- Managing Editor selects agreed gold open access licence for publication form on manuscript details. (For further information, see Licence for Publication forms: group sites.)
- Template email from Editorial Manager copies in David Hives (dhives@wiley.com; Cochrane Production Manager, Wiley) to say open access has been selected. David Hives will manage the payment process from this point onwards.
- Cochrane review published with open access logo, and relevant copyright and legal information.
Scenario 2: Waiver of article publication charge (APC)
- Author team is eligible for gold open access waiver because first author is from a Research4Life Group A or B country, provided that funding for the Cochrane Library article does not include funds for the article publication charge.
- Contact author alerts Managing Editor.
- Managing Editor checks eligibility against Research4Life list.
- Managing Editor sends template email from Editorial Manager to confirm if author is eligible (or not) and sends a link to webpage that explains the two OA LfPs that the author can select (CC BY-NC or CC BY-NC-ND). Author team and David Hives (dhives@wiley.com; Cochrane Production Manager, Wiley) are copied in to template. [See template email for scenario 2 below to explain the process.] (See also Licence for Publication forms: group sites.)
- Contact author lets Managing Editor know which open access license for publication form the team would like to select.
- Managing Editor selects agreed gold open access licence for publication form on manuscript details. (For further information, see Licence for Publication forms: group sites.)
- Template email from Editorial Manager copies in David Hives (dhives@wiley.com; Cochrane Production Manager, Wiley) to say open access has been selected and is eligible for a waiver (i.e. no payment required).
- Review published with open access logo, and relevant copyright and legal information.
Gold open access for compliance with the NIH 2024 Public Access Policy
The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy is a U.S. government mandate for researchers in receipt of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including NIH employees. It applies to peer-reviewed articles accepted for publication on or after 01 July 2025, whose research has been wholly or partially funded by the NIH, and it requires that the full text be made publicly accessible via PubMed Central (PMC) on the date of journal publication.
Wiley have confirmed that the sole route to compliance for affected NIH-funded authors publishing in the CDSR is for those authors to a) select a Gold OA license for publication and b) pay the associated article processing charge (APC). Authors may be directed to the EMKB's Licence for publication page, which contains explanatory entries for NIH grant recipients and NIH employees.
Points of clarification
| Topic | Explanation |
|---|---|
‘Compliance is free’ | Confusion may arise from the NIH policy’s statement that “compliance with the Public Access Policy is free”. The intended meaning is that compliance can be free, not that it must be free. The policy’s Supplemental Guidance: Publication Costs states that the “NIH recognizes that some peer-reviewed publishing routes may result in publication costs, including, but not limited to, article processing charges (APCs).” |
Dates of funding | The NIH policy applies to articles resulting from NIH-funded research or employment whose manuscripts are accepted on or after 01 July 2025, “regardless of when the [NIH] award from which the article resulted was funded” (Note 1, Note 2). Some NIH documentation refers to an effective date of 31 December, 2025; this was the originally planned effective date, which was moved up by six months to 01 July in a notice of April 2025. |
Manuscript version sent to PubMed Central | Wiley will follow their standard Gold OA procedures to deposit the publication version of a CLIB article into PMC. |
Waivers and discounts | Following Wiley's standard approach as displayed on the Cochrane Library page 'Open access options', first authors from a Research4Life country or territory (Groups A and B) may be eligible for a waiver of the Article Processing Charge. See Scenario 2 above for editorial steps. |