Wellcome Trust

POLICY STIPULATIONS

Time Limits

Published outputs should be deposited as soon as possible, and in any event within six months of final publication.

As an absolute minimum, researchers should make relevant data available to others on publication of their research, however opportunities for timely and responsible pre-publication sharing of data should also be maximised.

Research institutions are also required to maintain data securely for a minimum of ten years.

Data Plan

Researchers are required to submit a plan for data management and sharing, where a proposal involves the generation of datasets that have clear scope for wider research use and hold significant long-term value.

Plans should consider seven questions, as appropriate: what data generated will have value; when will it be shared; where will it be available; how will others access it; any limits to data sharing; preservation plans; and resources required.

Guidance is given on how to develop a data mangement and sharing plan.

Access/Data Sharing

The Trust supports unrestricted access to publications via PubMed Central

Researchers are to maximise the availability of data with as few restrictions as possible. Data should be made available on publication of results.

Long-term Curation

The Trust's Guidelines on Good Research Practice encourage appropriate creation and maintenance of research resources. Institutions are expected to have guidelines setting out responsibilities and procedures for the appropriate storage and disposal of data and samples.

Data should be maintained securely for a minimum of 10 years.

Monitoring

Compliance with the open access policy is monitored.

The Trust seeks to maintain active ongoing dialogue with grant holders and provide ongoing advice and support for data management and sharing. All awardees are asked to report back on their approach for disseminating their research as part of their end of grant report.

SUPPORT SERVICES

Guidance

The Trust provides an excellent Q&A on how to comply with its data policy, and detailed guidance on how to develop a data mangement and sharing plan.

Repository

The Wellcome Trust supports UK PubMed Central.

Data Centre

The Trust does not run its own data centre, but supports the development of key databases at the EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute and elsewhere.

Where there is no provision, responsibility falls to the institutions in which Wellcome Trust funded researchers are based.

Costs

The Trust will provide grantholders with additional funding, through their institutions, to cover open access charges. Where it pays an open access fee, the Trust requires papers are licensed such that they may be freely copied and re-used, for example for text and data-mining purposes.

The Trust considers that timely and appropriate data management and sharing should represent an integral component of the research process. Applicants may therefore include any costs associated with their proposed approach as part of their proposal.