The Wellcome Trust grant conditions require that papers accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, that are funded wholly or partially by a Wellcome Trust grant, be made freely available online (via prescribed methods) as soon as possible, and at least within six months of publication.

Below is a simple guide to the steps that authors must take to meet this requirement. You might find it useful to refer to the Wellcome Trust's guide Journals frequently used by Wellcome Trust grantholders: this gives advice on how to comply when publishing in the journals most popular with Wellcome authors. The Wellcome Trust's Complying with Open Access flow diagram provides a useful overview of the procedure for complying. More details about the policy and the process are available on the Wellcome Trust website:

• WT position statement
• WT authors' guide
• WT open access leaflet
• WT grant conditions

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Papers may only be submitted to journals with Wellcome Trust compliant publishing policies. Before submitting a paper, authors should check the Wellcome Trust's guide Journals frequently used by Wellcome Trust grantholders. If the journal does not appear in this list, check the SHERPA RoMEO website. Here you can search or browse for publishers or journal titles; in some cases, though, only the publisher is listed (e.g. PNAS does not appear, but its publisher, National Academy of Sciences, is listed). Publishers with a green tick next to Wellcome Trust are permitted (if anything is unclear, check the agreement that the publisher has with the Wellcome Trust: there should be a link to this from the Sherpa RoMEO website). Where a journal is not listed, the Wellcome Trust advises that authors seek clarification directly from the journal's editorial staff. If you are in any doubt about whether a journal is compliant, or you need any other advice, contact open-access-funding@ucl.ac.uk.

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The easiest way for an author to fulfil the publication requirement is to submit his or her paper to a journal that offers a paid open access option.

• The author pays a fee, covered by additional funding from the Wellcome Trust, to the publisher.
• The publisher makes the article freely accessible online, as well as depositing it in UK PubMed Central.

The Wellcome guide Journals frequently used by Wellcome Trust grantholders (see Stage 1) indicates which publishers offer this method, and contains links to publishers' open access policies. The SHERPA RoMEO website also contains links to publishers' policies (next to "paid access" in the publisher record).

At the beginning of the paid open access process, the publisher will ask the author (or the departmental administrator responsible for processing the article) to submit an article sponsorship form. This form usually includes a section for details of the funders who have supported the research, and the relevant grant numbers. The Wellcome Trust grant number is the code associated with the Wellcome Trust grant that supported the research, and is likely to be in this format, or a similar one: 038067/Z/03/Z. Give the billing address as the same as the author's (or administrator's) address. You should not need to include a purchase order number or billing code: if the publisher cannot process the article sponsorship form without this information, contact open-access-funding@ucl.ac.uk. When the publisher sends you an invoice for the open access charge, complete UCL's open access claim form (see Stage 3.)

Please note that if the publisher does not offer a paid open access option, authors can satisfy the grant conditions by self-archiving (though, as with paid open access, the journal must be Wellcome Trust compliant (see Stage 1). There are more details about this option in section 7 of the Wellcome Trust's Authors' guide.

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The Wellcome Trust has provided UCL with funds to cover publishers' open access charges. Wellcome Trust grant holders who are also members of UCL can apply for money from this grant by completing a claim form.

• the article has been accepted for publication
• the article is the direct result of research funded at least in part by the Wellcome Trust
• the publisher's scheme is Wellcome Trust compliant

Library Services can arrange payment of the open access charge directly to the publisher. This is the easiest method if the publisher has not yet been paid. If the publisher has already been paid, the relevant department can be reimbursed. Please indicate as appropriate on the claim form. Note that page and colour plate charges cannot be paid under this scheme. Library Services has been advised that no exemption from VAT on open access charges is available.

• claim form
• publisher's invoice or request for payment (attached to the claim form or sent subsequently to open-access-funding@ucl.ac.uk. If you do not have an electronic copy, send the paper version in the UCL internal post to E-Journals Administrator, Periodicals Section, UCL Science Library)
• receipt or proof of payment (if the invoice has been paid and you are claiming reimbursement)

UCL Eprints is an institutional repository that makes the work of UCL researchers freely available online. There is an option on the claim form to include your research in UCL Eprints. The version required is the final draft, after peer-review.

For further advice about claiming open access fees, please contact open-access-funding@ucl.ac.uk.

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Last modified 19 January 2009