Research on open access at UCL
Jinfo Blog

6th June 2009

By Diana Nutting

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While newspapers are beginning to charge for access to their content, there is a move from universities to make access to their research information free. University College London (UCL) has announced that it will put all its research since 2001 on open access, online.(http://digbig.com/4ywep) . According to the Financial Times (http://digbig.com/4yweq) this makes UCL 'the first of the top tier of elite European universities to make all its research available for free at the click of a mouse', although this could take some years to fully achieve. 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, (http://digbig.com/4ywes) 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 UCL has made the move because it regards the existing system of having to visit a library or pay a subscription fee to see research in journals a barriers to the use of research. However, plans for open access are at the mercy of the paid-for journals in which academics publish most of their work. Many journals currently insist on their right under copyright law to delay open access until a certain time, or refuse it altogether – rendering it difficult for universities to make all works freely available. Harvard has already moved towards open access, and other British universities – including Cardiff – are planning similar moves. The UCL repository for research output that is already Open Access can be viewed at (http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk).

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