Access options for The Cochrane Library

The Cochrane Collaboration aspires to prepare and publish high-quality research aimed at informing decision-making globally and to make this available to readers via one-click access. Table 1 outlines the different ways that readers can access The Cochrane Library and particularly full text access to Cochrane Reviews in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR).

Table 1. Overview of access options for The Cochrane Library

Access option	Type	Detail
Paid	National ‘provision’	Free online access for residents through a national funded licence; see countries with funded provision table below
	Subscriptions	Institutional or personal click for details
	Pay per view	USD $35 plus VAT (if applicable) click for details
Free	Time-limited country/region access	Via Evidence Aid
	One-click free access	One-click free access provided by IP recognition (no individual login). Based on publisher’s annual review of eligible countries in Group A and B for the HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme (www.who.int/hinari/eligibility). The countries listed in the table below have access until January 2014.
	Access to Research through HINARI (www.who.int/hinari/en/)	Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI), a partnership led by WHO. Access through a local, not-for-profit institution. Charge may apply dependent on countries' eligibility. Countries classified according to the Band 1 and Band 2 grouping, based on the gross national income per capita from the World Bank's list of low-income countries and other data.
Reduced cost	International Network for the INASP/PERii         (www.inasp.info)	Availability of Scientific Publications' (INASP) Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERii). Low-cost access provided to named research organizations in selected INASP partner countries
	Access to Research through HINARI (www.who.int/hinari/en)	See above
Open	‘Gold’ open access	CDSR: see details below
	‘Green’ open access	CDSR: see details below

Open access

On 1 February 2013, open-access options were introduced for the CDSR. Authors can choose one of two options for publishing their articles:

• Gold open access: immediate open access upon payment of an article publication charge fee. 
• Green open access: publication via the ‘standard’ model, with free access to the full article 12 months after publication.
  

 

Gold open access: immediate open access upon payment of an article publication charge
 

Via our publisher’s open access service, Online Open, authors and their funders have the option to fund individual articles, or groups of articles, to enable them to be published on an open access basis immediately.

How and at what stage in the article’s development do I pay for immediate open access?

Contact David Hives (dhives@wiley.com) at any time before the licence for publication form is signed by authors.

Article publication charge (APC)

The APC will depend on the status of the Cochrane Review; see Table 2.

Table 2. Article publication charge (APC)

Cochrane Review status	APC in US dollars
Cochrane Review or Update	$5000
Cochrane Review if APC paid for Protocol	$2500
Cochrane Review Update if APC paid for Cochrane Review	$2500
Protocol	$2500

The version of the article that will be open access immediately is the new citation version, as identified by the unique digital object identifier (DOI). If gold open access is purchased for an update, the previous versions of the review (as shaown in the "Other versions" tab) will be made free to view as per green open access. Only the gold open access version will receive the benefits of gold open access.

Licence for publication

Authors paying an APC for gold open access will sign a licence for publication form that reflects the open access nature of the article. Authors retain copyright and then (1) grant The Cochrane Collaboration exclusive rights of copyright in and to the article; and (2) choose between selecting a CC-BY-NC or CC-BY-NC-ND licence (see Table 3[4]). If authors are funded by RCUK or Wellcome Trust a CC-BY licence is available on request.

Table 3. Description of gold open access licences

Type of licence	Description
CC-BY-NC (Attribution, non-commercial)	“This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.”
CC-BY-NC-ND (Attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives )	“This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.”

Source: creativecommons.org/licenses/ (accessed 12 March 2012).

Archiving articles in repositories

Gold open access articles will normally be deposited automatically in PubMedCentral, and other repositories as determined by funder mandates, on behalf of the authors. Authors retain the right to deposit the article in other repositories of their choice or as required by their funder. A PDF of the final version, as specified by the Publisher, will be deposited.

Waivers and discounts

Authors from HINARI A and B countries (www.who.int/hinari/eligibility/en/) who are the first author of the Cochrane Review, Protocol, or Update are eligible for a waiver for the APC, provided funding for the Cochrane Review does not include funds for the APC. Qualifying authors should contact David Hives (dhives@wiley.com) before signing the licence for publication form.
Funders should contact Deborah Pentesco-Gilbert (dpentesc@wiley.com) to discuss discounts, such as the block purchase of APCs.

 

Green open access: publication via the ‘standard’ model, but with free access to the full article 12 months after publication
 

Cochrane Protocols and Reviews (including updates) published in the CDSR, with the exception of gold open access articles (see above), will be made freely available in the CDSR 12 months after publication. This will happen automatically and there is no charge for this.

 

This applies only to those versions published with a new citation on or after 1 February 2013. If, for example, a Cochrane Review update is published on 1 February 2013, on 1 February 2014 the Cochrane Review will be free to view. However, earlier versions, including the Protocol and first version of the Cochrane Review will not be free to view.

Licence for publication form

Authors continue to retain copyright and, as stated in the licence for publication form, retain the rights, shown in Table 4 and updated to incorporate the right in relation to repositories, in return for granting The Cochrane Collaboration an exclusive licence for publication.

Table 4. Author rights in licence for publication form

The right to post the Protocol or Review as an electronic file on the author’s own website and/or the author’s institution’s intranet, using the PDF version of the Review available in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The right to post a PDF of the final version, as specified by the Publisher, in an institutional repository or any repository mandated by the author’s funder, such as PubMedCentral, 12 months after publication. The right to photocopy or to transmit online or to download, print out, and distribute a reasonable number of copies of the published Protocol or Review in whole or in part, for the author’s personal or professional use including teaching purposes, but not for commercial purposes. The right to re-publish without charge all or part of any published Protocol or Review authored or contributed to by the author in a book written or edited by the author.  The right to use selected figures and tables, and selected text, including the abstract and/or plain language summary from the Protocol or Review, for the author’s own teaching purposes.

 

 

How will open access articles appear in the CDSR?
 

Articles with gold open access will be identified in the CDSR with a logo () and through text describing the selected copyright licence.
Articles with green open access will be free to access in the CDSR after 12 months and will be identified by a logo ().

 

What if my funder mandates different criteria for open access than those outlined above?
  

Wiley will respect funder mandates and implement the requirements. Contact Deborah Pentesco-Gilbert (dpentesc@wiley.com) for queries.

Authors funded by Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Wellcome Trust should note that both funders have new open access policies effective from 1 April 2013. These policies state that to be compliant, journals must offer a "pay to publish" (gold OA) option. When an article publication charge is paid the policies also mandate the use of the CC-BY licence. The CC-BY licence allows others to modify, build upon and/ or distribute work (including for commercial purposes) as long as the original author is credited.

We have created a promotional video for authors to understand the new UK funder mandates and Wiley's compliance:

 

How does content published in the CDSR fit on the ‘How open is it’ scale?
 

In 2012, the Public Library of Science (PLOS), The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) developed the “How open is it?” guide that shows the spectrum between open access and closed access; see www.plos.org/about/open-access/howopenisit/. Figure 1 shows where the CDSR fits onto this open-access spectrum.

 

Machine readability is one of the core components included in the guide. Contact Deborah Pentesco-Gilbert (dpentesc@wiley.com) to discuss permission to crawl or access the article full-text, metadata, and citations, and the use of an API for this purpose.

Figure 1. How open is it? Gold and green access in the CDSR

 

Who is eligible for Free Online Access?

Countries with Funded provision

Free online access for residents through a 'provision' or a special scheme. For futher details please click on the country or region listed in the table below:

Africa	Asia	Europe	North America	Oceania	South America
Egypt   Lusophone countries   South Africa	India Oman	Denmark Finland Ireland Norway Spain Sweden United Kingdom    England    Northern Ireland    Scotland    Wales	Canada   New Brunswick   Nova Scotia    United States    Wyoming	Australia   New Zealand	Latin America   Caribbean

One-click free access in low- and middle-income countries

The Cochrane Collaboration and John Wiley & Sons, provide one-click free access to The Cochrane Library in over 100 countries. Access is provided by IP recognition removing the requirement for individual login information. All eligible countries in Group A and B for the HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme (www.who.int/hinari/eligibility) are considered annually. The countries listed in the table below have access until January 2013 when this will be re-assessed:

Africa A-L	Africa M-Z	Asia	Europe	N.America	Oceania	S.America
Algeria Angola Benin Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde         Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo Côte d'Ivoire Democratic Republic of the Congo Djibouti               Equitorial Guinea Eritrea                             Ethiopia Gambia                                 Ghana Guinea                     Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia	Madagascar Malawi                                      Mali Mauritania                        Morocco Mozambique                      Namibia Niger                                   Nigeria Rwanda      Sao Tome and Principe Senegal                      Sierra Leone Somalia                      South Sudan Sudan                             Swaziland Tanzania                                 Togo Tunisia                                Uganda Zambia                            Zimbabwe	Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bangladesh Bhutan Cambodia Georgia Iraq Jordan Kyrgyzstan Laos Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal North Korea Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Vietnam West Bank & Gaza Strip YemenOman	Albania Bosnia Kosovo Macedonia Moldova Ukraine	Belize Cuba Dominican Republic El Salvador Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Nicaragua	Figi Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia Nauru Papua New Guinea Samoa Soloman Islands Timor Tokelau Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu	Boliva Colombia Ecuador Guyana Paraguay Peru Suriname

 

EUROPE

DENMARK

All residents of Denmark can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to funding for a national provision provided by the Ministry of Health.

FINLAND

Access to The Cochrane Library is available in Finland for registered users of Terveysportti-portal provided by Duodecim Medical Publications Ltd.

IRELAND

All residents of the Republic of Ireland can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to funding for a national provision by The Health Research Board in Dublin. See below for details of funding in Northern Ireland.

NORWAY

All residents of Norway can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to funding for a national provision from The Norwegian Health Services Research Centre. The Norwegian Branch of the Nordic Cochrane Centre.

SPAIN

All residents of Spain can access the Biblioteca Cochrane Plus for free. La Biblioteca Cochrane Plus includes the Spanish version of all Cochrane reviews, thanks to funding for a national provision by the Spanish Ministry of Health.

SWEDEN

All residents of Sweden can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to the funding provided by SBU – Statens beredning för medicinsk utvärdering/The Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care. 

UNITED KINGDOM

ENGLAND

All residents of England can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to funding provided by the National Library for Health via their website www.library.nhs.uk 

NORTHERN IRELAND

All residents of Northern Ireland can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to funding for a national provision by The Research and Development Office in Belfast. See above for details of funding in the Republic of Ireland. 

SCOTLAND

All residence of Scotland can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to funding provided by NHS Education for Scotland.

WALES

All residence of Wales can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to funding provided by The Welsh Assembly Government.

 

North America

CANADA

NEW BRUNSWICK

Access to The Cochrane Library is available for free, through the electronic resources section of the New Brunswick Public Library Service (NBPLS) website, to all New Brunswickers who have a public library card, thanks to funding provided by the partnership involving the NBPLS, the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Libraries and the Regional Health Authority (RHA) libraries.

NOVA SCOTIA

Access is free all Nova Scotian's through the Public Libraries of Nova Scotia via their database pages. Paid for by the Atlantic Health Knowledge Partnership (AHKP).

CANADIAN FREE TRIAL ACCESS

The 2009 pilot access for all Canadians supported by the contributions of subscribers from hospital, academic, and government libraries, and regional and provincial health library networks and consortia across Canada; with the support of The Canadian Health Libraries Association, the Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre, and the Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information has now expired.

While work continues to find a secure permanent national license, individual residents in Canada are being offered personal six month trial access for free. Simply email mhelmers@wiley.com with your name and full postal address.

For more information about the free trial, how to receive email alerts and a special Canadian subscription offer - click here.

UNITED STATES

WYOMING

All residents of the can access The Cochrane Library for free at the state's Wyoming Libraries Database libraries which include public, community college and medical libraries thanks to funding provided by Wyoming State Legislature's Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee.

 

sOUTH aMERICA

LATIN AMERICA and the CARIBBEAN

Access to The Cochrane Library is free via the Virtual Health Library BIREME interface (cochrane.bvsalud.org) in English, Spanish or Portuggese, thanks to funding provided by BIREME, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Access is available in the following countries:

Latin American: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadalupe, Haiti, Cayman Island, Turks and Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago

 

AUSTRALaSIA

AUSTRALIA

All residents of Australia can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to funding provided by the Australian Government and administered by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

INDIA

All residents of India can access the full contents of The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to sponsorship provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

NEW ZEALAND

All residents of New Zealand can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to the District Health Boards and the New Zealand Ministry of Health.
Links: New Zealand Guidelines Group and the New Zealand Branch of the Australasian Cochrane Centre.

OMAN

All residents of Oman can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to funding provided by the Oman Medical Specialty Board (OMSB).

 

AFRICA

EGYPT

All residents of Egypt can access The Cochrane Library for free, thanks to funding provided by the Egypt National Science & Technology Information Network (ENSTINET).

LUSOPHONE COUNTRIES

Access to The Cochrane Library is free via the Virtual Health Library BIREME interface (www.virtualhealthlibrary.org) in English, Spanish or Portugese, thanks to funding provided by BIREME, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and World Health Organisation (WHO). Access is available in the following countries:

Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, São Tomé e Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau

SOUTH AFRICA

The South African Cochrane Centre (SACC) offers a limited number of free access registrations to The Cochrane Library to African residents. To apply for sponsorship please register.