Annex 1
LEARNED AND SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS: RCUK
PRINCIPLES FOR JOINT RESEARCH COUNCIL POLICY
Making available information stemming from the
public funding of research requires all players involved (universities,
funders, publishers, libraries, as well as researchers themselves),
working in partnership, to recognise a set of rights and responsibilities,
relating to five fundamental principles governing the publication
of research results. These principles, set out below, are the
foundation of the publications policies that the Research Councils
will jointly develop during 2004.
1. Research Councils are responsible for
supporting and promoting the activities of a research base that
is vibrant, productive, and sustainable. We therefore have an
interest in ensuring:
— the effective dissemination of ideas
and knowledge;
— effective quality assurance of research
and its outputs;
— cost-effective use of public funds;
— long-term preservation of research
outputs.
2. Ideas and knowledge derived from publicly-funded
research should be made available for public use and public interrogation
and scrutiny. Research Councils believe that both the results
of publicly-funded research and the underpinning data should be
made available as widely and rapidly as possible. Councils recognise
that new Internet-based models for the publication of such output
will play a useful role in the widening and speeding of this access,
which in turn supports the Research Councils' knowledge transfer
strategies.
3. It is imperative that mechanisms should
be in place to provide quality assurance, through peer review,
for published research output. Historically, printed academic
journals have existed to provide this mechanism. Research Councils
consider that, as long as robust quality assurance mechanisms
continue to operate, there is no reason in principle, why other
publishing models cannot play an effective role in enhancing the
communications of research results both to the research community
and to other stakeholders, including the general public.
4. In discharging their obligations, Research
Councils are responsible for the cost-effective use of public
funds. This means that we must constantly seek to achieve a balance
between (a) the freedom of researchers to publish their output
wherever and however they consider most appropriate for their
audience, and (b) the need to ensure that the means of publication
are cost effective; and that there are effective and sustainable
financial models, with appropriate funding streams to support
them.
5. In the longer run, it is essential that
published outputs from current and future research must remain
as durable as printed material has been over the past few centuries.
The Research Councils are now considering the
issues stemming from these principles. Over the coming months,
we will consult with key players before establishing a joint framework
of policies to ensure that these principles are put into effect
in a changing publication environment; and that we support researchers
in fully and effectively exploiting new modes and mechanisms for
communicating their research results and reflect on how we might
define a joint policy on the evolving research publications environment.
By the end of 2004, the Research Councils will publicly set out
their fundamental position on open-access publication in a joint
declaration of principle.
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