Open access policy
Open access policy
After 10 years of providing free access to its peer reviewed research online, the BMJ officially became an open access journal. This coincided with the first international Open Access Day on the 14 October 2008. The BMJ's unique business model means that all research articles are freely available immediately on publication, regardless of whether or not they are publicly funded, with no charges to authors or readers.
Open access allows the sharing and reuse of publicly funded research without restriction to everyone everywhere.
In 1998, the BMJ became the first major general medical journal to provide free full text online access to its research articles, to deposit the full text in PubMed Central, and to allow authors to retain the copyright of their articles.
Since then, the BMJ Group has introduced BMJ Unlocked, which allows authors who submit research to 19 BMJ specialist journals to pay an author fee and make their work open access.
Changes to the BMJ's processes this year have brought it into full compliance with international open access policies but with a unique mixed revenue model, whereby access to research articles is currently funded through income from subscriptions and advertising rather than from author charges.
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