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. They are 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).
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.
Download the final report here 
.
Download the annexes here .
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.
Links:
RCUK consultation
RCUK position statement
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