As open-access publishing gains ground in research, academic and political circles, the most commonly aired question is "but who will pay for it?"

Six medical charities in the United Kingdom have collaborated to create the Charity Open Access Fund (COAF), which will provide funding to researchers to cover the cost of open-access publishing beginning 1 October 2014.

COAF is a partnership between Arthritis Research UK, Breast Cancer Campaign, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research and the Wellcome Trust.

The Wellcome Trust, which is administering the funds in the initial two-year pilot phase, states that COAF will "enable free and unrestricted access to the published outputs of the research we support."

"COAF will provide single combined block grants to 36 UK research institutions to meet open access article processing charges for peer-reviewed research publications resulting from research funded by one or more of the six partner charities."

Open-access publishing allows the public - including patients - to access research papers.

Dr Michael Eisen, a biologist and open-access advocate, is in favour of this development  - stating that since these charities benefit from public fundraising efforts such as marathons, the end results of this funding should be made accessible to the public.

"One of the biggest, strongest pushes for open access has been from the patient community," he said in an interview with ResearchResearch. "That can be a very powerful thing."

ecancermedicalscience, our open-access journal, is available for all to read for free.