The National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have announced a new open access policy for academic researchers (see CAS statement). All articles that are based on governmental Science and Technology programs, as well as all publicly funded projects should become accessible to everyone within 12 months after publication. This is either achieved via the publishers, and universities will also provide access via their own repositories to which researchers upload their published manuscripts.
Open access has become a subject of debate on a global scale. In the recent years, open access publishing groups like the Public Library of Science (Plos) and Biomed central (BMC) have gained both impact as well as popularity, and originally closed publishers such as the Nature publishing group have also opened a number of open journals.
The aim of an open access policy is to enhance knowledge and global involvement in the scientific community. CAS and NSFC made the announcement a week prior to the Global Research Council, a platform for major funding agencies worldwide, which was organised in Beijing in the end of May.