Skip to navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to footer

Advancing Openly Licensed Preprints: Aligning Across a Standard Preprint Policy Framework

Open practices for preprints, including open licensing, are crucial for rapid and equitable sharing of scientific research. ASAPbio in partnership with Creative Commons has engaged with research funders, including members of the Open Research Funders Group, to further policy alignment toward a standard Preprint Policy Framework. As of July 2025, the Gates Foundation and Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) identify this Preprint Policy Framework as a model framework, and are committed to promoting the use of preprints and their open licenses in policy and practice. CZI has also signaled alignment.

A total of nine research funders and organizations—including the Astera Institute, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the Simons Foundation, the Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust— have signaled their alignment across various components of the framework. Although the Astera Institute does not require preprints specifically, their policy promotes diverse outputs beyond “the mold of scholarly papers.”

Each of the six components of the Framework and information on the policy alignment of the participating research funders and organizations are detailed below.

Read more about the Preprint Policy Framework

Preprint Policy Framework

The Preprint Policy Framework consists of six policy items. A list of participating funders and whether they require or recommend each item is provided below.

Preprint Requirement	Preprints are either required or strongly recommended to be submitted to a publicly accessible server that issues a Persistent Identifier (such as a DOI), and made available at no cost to the author (to post) nor to the reader (to view).
Author’s Copyright	Authors retain copyright of their preprint (unless waived through a CC0 public domain dedication or other arrangements like U.S. government work).
CC BY Licensing	A CC BY license is required or strongly recommended for preprints (unless waived through a CC0 public domain dedication).
Submission Timeline	Preprints are uploaded to a server before or by the time of submission to a peer-reviewed outlet.
Funder Acknowledgement	Institutional affiliations, funders, and/or grants are acknowledged in the preprint’s acknowledgments and/or its metadata.
Availability Statement	A key resource table and/or availability statement is required or strongly recommended – outlining where the associated data, code, software, protocols, and key materials can be accessed or are deposited (with the appropriate persistent identifiers, if available).

Funder Policies

Aligning Science Across Parkinson's

Preprint requirement: Yes, required
Author’s Copyright: Yes, required
CC BY Licensing: Yes, required
Submission timeline: Yes, required
Funder acknowledgement: Yes, required
Availability statement: Yes, statement and key resource table required

See full policy:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XHlIzoDB2OAph1WOWIvysscm4ayy-bRBMfSayr8yZ1Q/edit?tab=t.0

Last updated: 2025-06-30

Astera Institute

Preprint requirement: NA
Author’s Copyright: No
CC BY Licensing: Yes, required
Submission timeline: NA
Funder acknowledgement: Unknown
Availability statement: Yes, availability required

See full policy: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15548988

Last updated: 2025-06-30

European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Preprint requirement: Yes, required
Author’s Copyright: No
CC BY Licensing: Yes, required
Submission timeline: No
Funder acknowledgement: Yes, required
Availability statement: Yes, availability required

See full policy: https://www.embl.org/about/info/open-science/

Last updated: 2025-06-30

Gates Foundation

Preprint requirement: Yes, required
Author’s Copyright: Yes, required
CC BY Licensing: Yes, required
Submission timeline: Yes, required
Funder acknowledgement: Yes, required
Availability statement: Yes, statement required

See full policy: https://openaccess.gatesfoundation.org/open-access-policy/2025-open-access-policy/

Last updated: 2025-06-30

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Preprint requirement: Yes, required
Author’s Copyright: No
CC BY Licensing: Yes, required
Submission timeline: Yes, required
Funder acknowledgement: No
Availability statement: Yes, availability recommended

See full policy: https://hhmicdn.blob.core.windows.net/policies/Immediate-Access-to-Research.pdf
Previous policy: https://hhmicdn.blob.core.windows.net/policies/Open-Access-To-Publications-Policy.pdf

Last updated: 2025-09-30

Michael J. Fox Foundation

Preprint requirement: Yes, recommended
Author’s Copyright: No
CC BY Licensing: No
Submission timeline: Yes, recommended
Funder acknowledgement: Unknown
Availability statement: Yes, availability recommended

See full policy: https://www.michaeljfox.org/sites/default/files/media/document/MJFF%20Open%20Access%20Publication%20Policy_0.pdf

Last updated: 2025-06-30

Simons Foundation

Preprint requirement: Yes, required
Author’s Copyright: No
CC BY Licensing: No
Submission timeline: Yes, required
Funder acknowledgement: Yes, required
Availability statement: Yes, availability and sharing plan required

See full policy: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/funding-opportunities/policies-and-procedures/

Last updated: 2025-06-30

Templeton World Charity Foundation

Preprint requirement: Yes, strongly encouraged
Author’s Copyright: No
CC BY Licensing: Yes, strongly encouraged
Submission timeline: Yes, strongly encouraged
Funder acknowledgement: No
Availability statement: No

See full policy: https://www.templetonworldcharity.org/our-policies/open-access-policy

Last updated: 2025-06-30

Wellcome Trust

Preprint requirement: Yes, strongly recommended
Author’s Copyright: Yes, required
CC BY Licensing: Yes, required
Submission timeline: Yes, required
Funder acknowledgement: Yes, required
Availability statement: Yes, statement required

See full policy: https://wellcome.org/grant-funding/guidance/open-access-guidance/open-access-policy

Last updated: 2025-06-30