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27 March 2008
Open Repositories 2008 to set new missions for universities
Powerful new ways in which universities are self-archiving their
research output for the world will be showcased next week at the Open
Repositories 2008 (OR08) conference.
http://or08.ecs.soton.ac.uk/
OR08, the international meeting on Open Repositories, will be hosted
by the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the
University of Southampton from 1-4 April. ECS, the world's first
school to adopt an open-access self-archiving mandate has been a
world-leader in the Open Access (OA) movement since its inception.
Repositories play a pivotal role in the evolving scholarly
information environment of open access research outputs and scholarly
collections. With its theme of Practice and Innovation, OR08 will
create an opportunity for practitioners and researchers to share
experiences and to explore the challenges of the new scholarly
communication.
Participants are also invited to a special conference session on
University Open Access entitled The University's Mission, Management
and Mandate in the Open Access Era, which has been organised by Dr
Les Carr at ECS and will take place on Friday 4 April.
The session will be led by Professor Bernard Rentier, Rector of the
University of Liege and Founder of EurOpenScholar, the aim of which
is to inform European universities about Open Access and increase the
number of European universities with mandatory Open Access policies.
Professor Rentier will describe exciting and innovative ways for
EurOpenScholar and the European University Association to work
together to push forward the OA agenda in Europe. Other speakers are
at this event are Dr John Smith, Deputy Secretary General, European
University Association and Dr Alma Swan, Key Perspectives Ltd.
Professor Stevan Harnad, Professor of Cognitive Science at the
University and one of the founders of the OA worldwide movement, who
will outline the major challenges facing OA, said: ?So far, there
have been 39 university and funder OA self-archiving mandates
worldwide, including those of Southampton, Harvard University?s
Faculty of Arts & Sciences, six of the seven UK research councils and
National Institutes of Health in the USA and the European Research
Council.
It is now time to systematically accelerate adoption universally
using the incentive of the research assessment metrics that OA has
been shown to enhance.?
OR08 will also invite participants to take part in a new Repository
Challenge prize activity to produce demonstrations of novel
repository capability. The aim is to get delegates working in small
teams to try to pull together established platforms and services to
demonstrate a glimpse of some real-life, user-relevant scenarios and
services. An awards ceremony at the conference dinner will celebrate
the achievements of the teams.
Notes to editors
Journalists are welcome to attend the conference and should contact
Hélène Murphy, Media Relations Consultant to ECS, Tel: 07944 847570,
Email: hpmurphy_at_aol.com to reserve a place.
For information about OR08, please visit:
http://or08.ecs.soton.ac.uk/
With around 500 researchers, and 900 undergraduate students, the
School of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton is one of
the world's largest and most successful integrated research
groupings, covering Computer Science, Software Engineering,
Electronics, and Electrical Engineering. ECS has unrivalled depth and
breadth of expertise in world-leading research, new developments and
their applications.
The University of Southampton is a leading UK teaching and research
institution with a global reputation for leading-edge research and
scholarship.
This is one of the country's top institutions for engineering,
computer science and medicine, and home to a range of world-leading
research centres, including the National Oceanography Centre,
Southampton, the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, the
Optoelectronics Research Centre, the Centre for the Developmental
Origins of Health and Disease, and the Mountbatten Centre for
International Studies.
We combine academic excellence with an innovative and entrepreneurial
approach to research, supporting a culture that engages and
challenges students and staff in their pursuit of learning.
As one of the UK's top 10 research universities, we offer first-rate
opportunities and facilities for study and research across a wide
range of subjects in humanities, health, science and engineering. We
have over 22,000 students, around 5000 staff, and an annual turnover
in the region of £325 million.
For further information contact:
Dr Les Carr, School of Electronics and Computer Science, Tel: 023
8059 4479,
Email: lac -- ecs.soton.ac.uk
Hélène Murphy, Media Relations Consultant to ECS, Tel: 07944 847570,
Email: hpmurphy -- aol.com
Received on Thu Mar 27 2008 - 20:59:16 GMT