A medical publisher has changed its copyright policy to ease the process for authors to comply with the federal public access mandate. Starting today (May 1), authors will automatically retain copyright of manuscripts submitted to Rockefeller University Press journals, according to an editorial published yesterday in the Journal of Cell Biology.

Giving copyrights to authors streamlines the process of submitting articles to PubMed Central within 12 months of acceptance for publication, as a federal mandate passed this year requires. Under the traditional model of publishing, authors give copyrights to a journal forever. In order for authors to comply with the new mandate they have to negotiate with journals to retain copyright.

While Rockefeller University Press will continue to require readers to pay for articles for six months after publication, they will now do so under a license from the author. After six months, a creative commons license will take effect, which lets anyone reuse, redistribute, or publish the paper for non-commercial purposes.

Rockefeller University Press, which includes The Journal of Cell Biology, The Journal of Experimental Medicine, and The Journal of General Physiology, has been a strong supporter of the National Institutes of Health mandate for public access. Copyright has been a major sticking point for publishers facing the new mandate.

This new policy makes Rockefeller University Press journals the first subscription journals to open up all journal content under a creative commons license.

"We see it that we're in an ideal position to push the bar showing people what's possible to be done," Emma Hill, executive editor of the Journal of Cell Biology told The Scientist. That is "to do the right things for scientific publishers, and meet the goals in research and academia."