As the public bodies charged with investing tax payers money in science and research,
the Research Councils take very seriously their responsibilities in making the outputs
from this research publicly available – not just to other researchers, but also
to potential users in business, Government and the public sector, and also to the
public.
Each Research Council publishes comprehensive information about its own research
outputs and achievements. This information is located as follows:
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Access to Research Outputs
The Research Councils are committed to the guiding principles that publicly funded
research must be made available to the public and remain accessible for future generations.
Following a wide consultation with stakeholders, RCUK published a position statement
on access to research outputs in June 2006; individual Research Councils then published
their own position statements (see links below).
The RCUK position statement is available
here
.
Research Council position statements:
Arts and Humanities Research Council
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Economic and Social Research Council
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Medical Research Council
Natural Environment Research Council
Science and Technology Facilities Council
In 2008, RCUK funded an independent study into open access, which was conducted
by SQW Consulting and LISU, Loughborough University. Its purpose was to identify
the effects and impacts of open access on publishing models and institutional repositories
in light of national and international trends, including the impact of open access
on the quality and efficiency of scholarly outputs, specifically journal articles.
The report from the study was published in April 2009.
In response to this, the Chief Executives of the Research Councils have agreed
that over time the UK Research Councils will support increased open access, by:
- building on their mandates on grant-holders to deposit research papers in
suitable repositories within an agreed time period, and;
- extending their support for publishing in open access journals, including
through the pay-to-publish model.
RCUK and HEFCE joint commitment to open access
Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) have developed the following statement to set out the principles of how they will work together to ensure greater open access to published research:
“Research Councils UK and HEFCE have a shared commitment to maintaining and improving the capacity of the UK research base to undertake research activity of world leading quality, and to ensuring that significant outputs from this activity are made available as widely as possible both within and beyond the research community. Open access to published research supports this commitment and, if widely implemented, can benefit the research base, higher education, and the UK economy and society more broadly. To achieve this, open access needs to be implemented with clear licensing agreements, sustainable business models, and working with the grain of established research cultures and practices.
HEFCE and the Research Councils will work together and with other interested bodies to support a managed transition to open access over the medium term, and welcome the work of the UK Open Access Implementation Group in support of this aim."
David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science announced the commitment in a speech to the Association of British Science Writers on 24 May 2011. More information is available here.