Actually, to set the record straight: only 2 of those 4 OA mandates
are new. ASF mandated OA in October 2006 and SFI mandated OA in Feb
2009.
The HRBI mandate is a (welcome) upgrade from what was merely a "strong
encouragement" policy in Feb 28. The Telethon Italy mandate sounds
like it's entirely new.
(Is this, then, only an announcement that the biological output of
these 4 institutions will also be deposited in UKPMC?)
With the Harvard Business School Mandate (#148 worldwide) this brings
the total number of OA mandates to #150 (44 funder mandates and 106
institutional and departmental mandates). See ROARMAP:
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/
On 28-Feb-10, at 9:12 PM, Peter Suber wrote:
> [Forwarding from the Wellcome Trust. --Peter Suber.]
>
>
> European research funders throw weight behind UK open access
> repository
>
> 1 March 2010
>
> Four European research funders have today added their support to the
> open access repository UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) by agreeing that
> the life sciences research outputs made possible with their funding
> are made freely available through this repository.
>
> Launched in January 2007, UKPMC is a free-to-access digital archive
> of full-text, peer-reviewed biomedical and life sciences research.
> As of February 2010, it holds over 1.7 million full text articles.
> The ambition of the repository is to become the information resource
> of choice for the UK biomedical and health research communities and
> eventually to expand to become 'Europe PubMed Central'.
>
> Today, this aim takes a step closer as four European research-
> funding organisations - the Health Research Board Ireland and
> Science Foundation Ireland, Telethon Italy and the Austrian Science
> Fund - have agreed to participate in UKPMC. The funders will mandate
> that all biomedical research outputs that arise from their funding
> are made freely available - typically within six months of
> publication - from the UKPMC repository.
>
> The development has been welcomed by Sir Mark Walport, Director of
> the Wellcome Trust, one of the principal funders of UKPMC:
>
> "Free access to peer-reviewed research is essential for facilitating
> progress in biomedicine. I am delighted that these European funders
> have thrown their support behind UKPMC, and hope that other European
> research funders will follow their example. This should enable us to
> build on the success of the repository and expand to a Europe-wide
> service."
>
> The four European funders will take part in 'Phase I' of UKPMC, and
> as such will be provided with a fully-managed repository service,
> along with a manuscript submission system to allow their researchers
> to archive their papers in the UKPMC repository. Access to the Grant
> Reporting System is also enabled, allowing researchers to report on
> the outputs of their grants.
>
> Lucia Monaco, Chief Scientific Officer, Telethon Italy, commented
> that "as a charity funded by patients, we are excited about the
> opportunity to make the primary outputs of our research freely
> available to scientists, patients, donors and the general public
> through UKPMC. The world-wide visibility offered by UKPMC through
> its connection to PMC and the European prospect it offers have made
> it the repository of choice for Telethon-supported publications"
>
> Funders will also benefit from the developments being made to the
> UKPMC service. Key developments include providing the functionality
> - through text and data mining technologies - to integrate research
> articles with a range of other online sources, such as gene, protein
> and chemical compound databases, and to integrate a range of
> bibliographic databases - including Medline, Patents and Agricola -
> into a single, seamless discovery tool.
>
> Phase I funding is based on a simple 'pay-as-you-go' model in which
> a small fee is charged for each author manuscript that is deposited
> in the UKPMC repository (to cover the cost of converting a
> manuscript to XML). All ongoing infrastructure costs will continue
> to be met by the existing UKPMC funders.
>
> It is anticipated that Phase I will run until Summer 2011, to be
> followed by Phase II, a fully fledged Europe PubMed Central with a
> range of additional, value-added services.
>
> Contact
> Craig Brierley
> Senior Media Officer
> Wellcome Trust
> T +44 (0)20 7611 7329
> E c.brierley_at_wellcome.ac.uk
>
> Notes for editors
>
> UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) is a free digital archive of biomedical
> and life sciences journal literature. Based on PubMed Central, the
> US National Institutes of Health free digital archive, UKPMC
> provides a stable and permanent online archive of full-text peer
> reviewed research publications. UKPMC is funded by the Arthritis
> Research Campaign, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
> Council, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Chief
> Scientist Office, Medical Research Council, National Institute for
> Health Research and the Wellcome Trust. The UKPMC project is managed
> by the British Library on behalf of the UKPMC Funders Group.
> http://ukpmc.ac.uk/
>
> The Wellcome Trust is a global charity dedicated to achieving
> extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports
> the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical
> humanities. Its breadth of support includes public engagement,
> education and the application of research to improve health. It is
> independent of both political and commercial interests.
> http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/
>
> [PS: Also see the version of this press release at the Wellcome
> Trust web site, February 28, 2010.]
> http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2010/WTX058744.htm
>
Received on Mon Mar 01 2010 - 12:24:54 GMT