[Insight-developers] OPEN ACCESS: UCL to implement open access policy to all research

[Luis Ibanez]

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/media/library/OpenAccess


UCL to implement Open Access policy to all research

3 June 2009

UCL (University College London) has today announced the establishment of
a UCL Publications Board that will implement the university’s Open
Access policy and be responsible for ensuring that, subject to copyright
permissions, all UCL research is placed online in the university’s
institutional repository, freely accessible to all. This move places UCL
at the forefront of academic institutions who are pioneering the move to
Open Access, as the first European university ranked in the global top
ten in the THE – QS world university rankings to do so.

UCL has already given all of its PhD students the option of making their
theses available in its online repository, open access, giving these far
greater visibility than they would enjoy as paper copy on library
shelves. In academic departments across UCL there is already a broad
take-up of Open Access, and the records of the whole of UCL’s 2008
Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) return have been loaded into the
repository, with links added to the relevant version of the full text
where copyright permissions allow. The creation of the UCL Publications
Board extends this situation to the whole of UCL’s published research
output. The Publications Board will oversee the rollout of UCL’s Open
Access mandate, and promote Open Access both within UCL and beyond as an
important scholarly medium for the dissemination of research.

Open Access is a new form of dissemination for published books,
articles, conference proceedings and digital outputs. Its principles are
based on the Berlin Declaration, which urges authors to retain the
rights in the materials they produce and to place a copy in an Open
Access medium – in UCL’s case the university’s electronic repository –
so that they are available free at point of use to anyone, anywhere in
the world, with an Internet connection.

“In the competitive environment of a global higher education market,
Open Access repositories provide a platform on which a university can
showcase its research,” says Dr Paul Ayris, Director of UCL Library
Services. “Open Access helps prospective students make a judgement on
which University to choose, shares blue-skies research with the widest
possible audience, and supports outreach activity to open up higher
education to new communities.

“In addition, at a time when library budgets are under enormous
pressure, Open Access is a means of ensuring that subscriptions do not
become a barrier to use. Material made available in an Open Access
repository is available to everyone with a wish to view it, and free at
point of use. As part of our move towards Open Access, we will also be
investigating the best ways to roll it out in a way that might offer a
model for the sector, and we would be happy to discuss our experiences
with colleagues from other institutions.”

Prof Anthony Finkelstein, Head of Computer Science, said: “Impact is the
watchword for research and this depends on it reaching the widest
audience possible. Open Access is a critical enabler for this. UCL’s
plans to build a major scholarly resource around its Open Access policy
is warmly welcomed by researchers across UCL.”

Professor Chris Carey, Head of Greek and Latin, said: “The potential
benefits of Open Access as a means of making cutting edge research
available across the world cost free are enormous. This is an
opportunity to make a major impact in regions where cost is a
potentially insuperable obstacle to access. The scale, diversity and
outstanding quality of UCL research make us ideal leaders in this field.”

Notes for Editor

1. For further information about UCL’s Open Access strategy or interview
requests, contact Dominique Fourniol in the UCL Media Relations office
on +44 (0)20 7679 9728 or d.fourniol at ucl.ac.uk.

2. The UCL repository for research output that is already Open Access
can be viewed at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk.

3. The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences
and Humanities can be viewed at
http://oa.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html.