Learn more about the Get the Inside Track on NIH Changes series in April, the new Open Access Policy for the Gates Foundation, and support for Article Processing Charges.
Get the Inside Track on NIH Changes
Becker Medical Library is hosting four sessions in April 2025 to review the upcoming requirements and changes for NIH-funded investigators. These sessions are open to anyone. Please register early as space is limited.
Requirements:
- Two Common Forms: NIH Biosketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support.
- One new Form: NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement.
- SciENcv will be required to generate and certify the Common Forms, and the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement.
- The ORCiD ID must be entered in the Persistent Identifier (PID) section of the Common Forms and linked to the eRA Commons Personal Profile.
Change:
- NIH-funded works (accepted for publication on or after December 31, 2025) must be submitted to PubMed Central with public availability upon the official date of publication.
The Updated NIH Public Access Policy for Publications (Zoom)
Thursday April 8
10-10:45 am
Registration
ORCID: What it is and How to Use it (Zoom)
April 15
10-10:45 am
Registration
NIH Biosketch and NCBI SciENcv (Zoom)
April 22
10-11 am
Registration
Recap of NIH Requirements (In-Person)
April 24
Come anytime from Noon-1 pm
Farrell Learning and Teaching Center (FLTC) 204
Refreshments will be available.
Registration
Gates Foundation Open Access Policy
The Gates Foundation announced the following changes to the Gates Foundation Open Access Policy effective January 1, 2025:
- Article Processing Charges are the responsibility of grantees and their co-authors.
- Grantees must acknowledge Gates funding in manuscripts.
- Grantees are required to post their funded manuscripts as a preprint in a recognized preprint server such as bioRxiv or VeriXiv.
- A CC-BY 4.0 or equivalent license must be assigned to the manuscript.
- Accepted articles shall be deposited immediately upon publication in PubMed Central (PMC), or in another openly accessible repository, with proper metadata tagging identifying Gates funding.
- A Data Availability Statement must be included in the manuscript. This is required even where there is no data associated with the article.
Resources:
Gates Foundation 2025 Open Access Policy
Open Access Policy Refresh 2025 – One Pager
Grantee Guide
Payment of Publishing Fees
Grantee Repository Guide
Support for Article Processing Charges
Becker Library and WashU Libraries negotiate agreements with publishers that allow WashU Corresponding Authors a waiver or discount of Article Processing Charges for open access publications. To learn more, see: Article Processing Charges (APCs): Waivers and Discounts for WashU Authors. Our largest agreement is with Elsevier which includes over 2,500 journal titles, and includes select Cell Press and Lancet journals. The four-year agreement with Elsevier is effective until December 31, 2027.
Readings
Aczel B, et al. The present and future of peer review: Ideas, interventions, and evidence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Feb 4;122(5):e2401232121.
Bibbins-Domingo K, et al. Reaffirming the JAMA Network Commitment to the Health of Patients and the Public. JAMA. 2025 Feb 20.
Bornmann L, Klaus Wohlrabe K.
Pattern, Perception, and Performance: Tripartite Phrases in Academic Paper Titles.
CESifo Working Paper Series 11671. 2025.
Naddaf M. Preprint sites bioRxiv and medRxiv launch new era of independence. Nature News. March 11, 2025.
openRxiv. Introducing openRxiv: a new independent home for preprint sharing in the life sciences. March 11, 2025.
Trueblood JS, et al. The misalignment of incentives in academic publishing and implications for journal reform. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Feb 4;122(5):e2401231121.