Open Access and Researchers
The research outputs of a university are significant assets for both the institution and for the individual researcher. But if they are not easily accessible they are not known about, they are not shared and built upon and they are not cited.
Open Access repositories are the easiest way to open up the research knowledge base to all.
Open Access repositories, where researchers can deposit a version of a paper that has been published in an academic journal and make it freely available to everyone, are the easiest way to open up the research knowledge base to all.
Through a recent programme, JISC has funded 44 projects to help institutions to build their first repositories or enhance existing ones. A new programme is funding 10 projects to start new repositories and 16 repository enhancement projects. JISC's Welsh Repository Network project has put a repository in every higher education institution in Wales, making it the first country in the UK – and one of the few in the world – to achieve that coverage.
The JISC repositories roadmap takes the programme to 2012 and sets out some of the exciting routes JISC believes repositories can take, now and in the future, to provide even greater benefits to institutions and researchers. These include:
- Providing services such as profiles and bibliographies for academics to collect and display all their papers in one place
- Collecting statistics about how many times a paper has been downloaded, and from which countries
- Implementing robust preservation policies
- Expanding to include research data and learning resources
Research into Open Access
| JISC reports for Researchers |
| Open Access self-archiving: An author study |
Key Perspectives Ltd (2005) |
| Disciplinary differences and needs |
Sue Sparks, Rightscom Ltd (Aug 2005) |
| Open Access citation information |
R. Hardy, C. Oppenheim, T. Brody & S. Hitchcock (Sep 2005) |
| Guide to scholarly publishing Guide concerned primarily with scholarly publishing, that is, the means by which the results of scholarly research are formally disseminated |
Key Perspectives Ltd (Jun 2005) |
| Scoping study on repository version identification |
S. Rumsey, F. Shipsey, M. Fraser, H. Noble, M. Bide, H. Look & D. Kahn (2006) |
| Use of research content in undergraduate teaching |
Jill Armstrong and Bill Norton (Jun 2006) |
| Summary of scholarly communications survey findings |
(2007) |
| Researcher awareness & access to Open Access content through libraries |
Key Perspectives Ltd (Jun 2007) |
| Copyright matters for UK researchers, teachers and learners |
(Apr 2008) |
| Scholarly communications discipline-based advocacy: Publishing directions |
(Apr 2009) |
| Report to Research Support Libraries Group Research Support Libraries Group website |
(May 2002) |
| Survey on the use of different forms of scholarly output |
(Jun 2007) |
| UK access to UK research |
Published in Serials 2007 20(3) pp. 231-2347 |
| e-Publication and Open Access in the Arts and Humanities in the UK |
|
| Key concerns within the scholarly communication process |
Key Perspectives Ltd (Mar 2008) |
| JISC Open Access publication charges survey report |
(Sep 2008) |
| Scoping study: Issues relating to quality-control measures within the scholarly communication process |
(Jan 2009) |
| Students use of research content in teaching and learning |
UCLAN (Jun 2009) |
| Economic implications of alternative scholarly publishing models: Exploring the costs and benefits |
(Jan 2009) |
Read all JISC Open Access reports
Video: Andy McGregor on the benefits of Open Access repositories
Duration (1:33)