JISC

Below is a brief summary of recent JISC press releases related to scholarly communications.  Link to the full press release on the JISC News page for more details. 

Supporting scholarship in the digital age – the Depot launched

5 June 2007 A major JISC conference being held in Manchester this week will mark an important milestone in establishing institutional repositories across UK education and research. The Depot is a national JISC-funded repository based at EDINA in the University of Edinburgh. This will enable all UK researchers to deposit their academic papers and other outputs under terms of Open Access, including those whose institution does not yet have a repository. The new service, with its simple message and advice to “put it in the Depot”, represents an important step in the development of a scholarly communications environment for UK education and research.

SHERPA wins prestigious European award

25 April 2007 The JISC-funded SHERPA partnership was today awarded the prestigious SPARC Europe Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scholarly Communications. The award, presented at a conference at the CERN Laboratories in Geneva, recognises the work of “an individual or group within Europe that has made significant advances in our understanding of the issues surrounding scholarly communications and in developing practical means to address the problems with the current systems.”

Put research publications 'in the Depot'

13 April 2007 Put it in the Depot... That is the simple message to be promoted as part of the JISC Repositories and Preservation programme in support of deposit of research publications under terms of Open Access.

Theses unbound: towards a national e-theses service for the UK

8 March 2007 A two-year project will lead to open access to the more than 14,000 theses published in the UK each year.  A fully integrated national electronic theses service moved a step closer with the announcement today that a two-year project – EThOSnet – is to be funded to establish a live service run by the British Library in two years’ time.

Working together for effective scholarly communications

26 February 2007 There are significant changes taking place in the scholarly communication process and many of these changes are driven by changes in technology. These increasingly mean that research results can be disseminated and used far more easily and quickly than previously possible.  While taking advantage of technical advances is important to all stakeholders, including researchers, academics, publishers and funders alike, there is a need for supporting policies to be developed within a commonly understood framework. The Research Information Network has published a Statement of Principles on ‘Research and the Scholarly Communications Process’ which aims at an agreed public policy framework for the UK to which JISC has lent its support.

European Commission discusses future of scientific publishing

19 February 2007 More than 500 delegates from nearly 50 countries attended a major European Commission conference last week to discuss the future of scientific publishing in the European Research Area. Held in Brussels, the conference attracted researchers, publishers, policy makers, research funders, librarians and administrators drawn to debate the issues of open access of research outputs, dissemination of research and preservation in the digital age.

Worldwide petition on open access delivered to European Commission

15 February 2007 More than 20,000 call for public access to publicly funded research. A petition calling on the European Commission to adopt polices to guarantee free public access to research results was delivered today to Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner for Science and Research. Nobel laureates Peter Agre, Martinus Veltman, and Harold Varmus, and Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder, are among the more than 20,000 concerned researchers, senior academics, lecturers, librarians, and citizens from across Europe and around the world who have signed the petition.