Publishing Developments

The RCUK has just released their revised statement at:

www.rcuk.ac.uk/access

The fundamental principles remain the same:

• Ideas and knowledge derived from publicly-funded research must be made available and accessible for public use, interrogation and scrutiny, as widely, rapidly and effectively as practicable.

• Published research outputs must be subject to rigorous quality assurance, through effective peer review mechanisms.

• The models and mechanisms for publication and access to research results must be both efficient and cost-effective in the use of public funds.

• The outputs from current and future research must be preserved and remain accessible for future generations

but they tread cautiously around the question of limitations imposed by publishers’ copyright and licensing policies.

They also recognize that different approaches are appropriate to different disciplines and they devolve responsibility for providing specific guidance to the individual councils. AHRC aims to finalize amendments of its guidelines by the end of 2006:

AHRC guidelines