Howard Hughes Medical Institute pays for Open Access in Springer journals

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) today announced that it will support Open Access in Springer journals through the Springer Open Choice program. HHMI earlier this year made a similar deal with Elsevier and last month became a BiomedCentral member (I wrote about this here).

In contrast to articles in Elsevier journals (which become freely available after 6 months and Elsevier holds the copyright), articles in Springer journals will be available immediately and the author will retain the copyright.

I'm glad to see this agreement happen. It probably makes sense for Springer, HHMI and, most importantly, the involved scientists. Even more so now with the charged discussion about PRISM.