Gates provides open research platform

As an institute implementing various projects with funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates), IITA will comply with the recent directives from the Gates requiring all institutions and projects that it funds to make discoveries from such research efforts immediately available without charge to others needing such information on its newly developed Gates Open Research repository.

This is part of IITA’s plan of being Open Access compliant. The year 2016 was dedicated as the year of Open Access at IITA. Since then, the Institute and its scientists have made considerable progress in creating, upgrading, and submitting all research findings on CGSPACE—a broader Open Access repository for CGIAR centers.

Explaining on the need for the Gates Open Research, Jennifer Hansen, Senior Officer & Open Access Policy Lead at Gates Foundation, said in a memo that the collation and eventual use of data from invaluable research will “help promote equality in the world where we live”.

“The foundation is providing this open research platform because we want you to get your research out into the world as rapidly as possible. Free, immediate, and unrestricted access to your research will help create a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life. Gates Open Research complies with the foundation’s Open Access Policy and enables researchers to take control of the publishing process without barriers: immediate Open Access publication of articles and all associated source data, followed by a transparent invited peer review. Full transparency will enable reanalysis; replication attempts, and data reuse, and therefore increase research integrity and accountability.”

The new platform is expected to be fully operational by the third quarter of 2017; however, scientists can now begin to submit their research articles.