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<font size=3>[Forwarding from JISC. --Peter Suber.] <br>
<br><br>
<div align="center"><b>Opening up research for better returns on
taxpayers’ investment<br>
</b></div>
<br>
As part of International Open Access Week (October 19 – 23, 2009) JISC is
today launching a definitive
<a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/openaccess">guide</a> to its 15 years of
work in Open Access, tracking the changes in UK policy, opinions and what
the future will look like.<br>
<br>
The guide has been created to showcase the work JISC has achieved for
scholarly communications in the UK and is supported by electronic
resources including interviews with experts from across education and
research. This suite of information is being launched to support UK
researchers in opening up their work for better returns on taxpayers’
investment.<br>
<br>
The increased impact of wider access to academic research papers could be
worth approximately £170 million per year to the UK economy. Work
funded by JISC in UK colleges and universities includes cost-benefit
analysis and case studies showing why and how universities can support a
transition to open access for research outputs and an investigation into
the feasibility of a national purchasing scheme for Open Access
publication charges.<br>
<br>
Dr Malcolm Read, executive secretary, JISC says, “It is clear that the
choices research organisations and individual researchers make in
deciding how research should be published can have an impact upon the
value to society of taxpayer-funded research. Although JISC has
achieved a great deal in promoting the Open Access debate earnestly and
consistently over the past 12 -15 years, we still have more to do to
engage the research community and practitioners more effectively.”<br>
<br>
JISC will also be looking at the challenges facing academic librarians to
support researchers in sharing their research papers through
repositories, working with Open Access and traditional model publishers,
as well as researchers themselves in terms of what they need and desire
to promote their work.<br>
<br>
Neil Jacobs, programme manager, for JISC’s Open Access work says, “Open
Access is absolutely crucial right now and it's crucial because it both
makes the scholarly communications process more efficient and because it
allows publicly funded research in the UK to have a lot more impact.
<br>
<br>
“We've shown by the research that we've funded that the efficiency
savings are really quite significant compared with the way scholarly
communications and research papers are disseminated now. But perhaps more
importantly than that, if we're going to get out of recession, it will
based on innovation, it's going to be based on the private sector having
access to the outputs from the public science base and being able to use
that to innovate.<br>
<br>
“There was a report recently
<a href="http://www.publishingresearch.net/SMEaccess.htm">commissioned</a>
that showed that most small and medium sized enterprises have difficulty
getting hold of research papers and they consider these research papers
as really important sources of information for their work. Clearly, if
this material is available openly on the web, those small and medium
sized enterprises will have access to it and be in a much better position
to compete.”<br>
<br>
Over the coming months JISC will be running an investigation into the
feasibility of a national scheme for Open Access publication
charges.<br>
<br>
Open Access Week is being led by
<a href="http://www.arl.org/sparc/">SPARC</a>, the Scholarly Publishing
and Academic Resources Coalition, which is an international alliance of
academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the
scholarly publishing system.<br>
<br>
Read about JISC’s <a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/openaccess">work</a> on
Open Access and find out more about the first International Open Access
Week at
<a href="http://www.openaccessweek.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.openaccessweek.org<br><br>
</a>---------- <br>
<br>
<b>Notes to editors:<br>
</b>Examples of Open Access week activities taking place in other
countries include: <br>
<br>
•
47 institutions in 14 German Federal States will run local events for
their researchers and<br>
students<br>
•
Italian librarians have produced videos to show authors how to deposit
their work in an <br>
open access repository<br>
•
The European Commission is including an Open Access session as part of
the European <br>
Research Area Conference to be held in Brussels during Open Access
Week<br>
•
University of California Irvine is running a seminar on ‘Open Access: the
Status and Success <br>
with Different Disciplines’<br><br>
JISC inspires colleges and universities in the innovative use of digital
technologies helping to maintain the UK’s position as a global leader in
education. JISC receives funding from all the UK further and higher
education funding councils. For further information visit the JISC
<a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo.aspx">website</a> or for media
enquiries contact a member of JISC’s press office at
<a href="mailto:press@jisc.ac.uk">press@jisc.ac.uk</a> or call
telephone 0117 3310657.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Sophie Pettit</b> | Public Relations<br><br>
Bray Leino | The Blue House, Clifton Down, Bristol, BS8 3HT<br>
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