Last week, Universities UK and JISC held a conference to educate senior university managers about the importance of open access to institutions, how to develop policies and plan financing.
A report presented at the conference demonstrates that a single large university could contribute around £3 million each year to the UK research community as a whole simply by sharing knowledge through a more open route.
Indeed, many UK universities and higher education colleges are already exploring open access, but the report suggests more could and should be done in the next five years to make open access the preferred route for publishing research. In turn, it is expected this will increase the competitiveness and creativity of the UK.
However the costs and benefits of an open access policy may well fall unequally across individual institutions. There may also be implications for institutional repository use, open access publication funds and open access policies.
To this end the Research Communications Strategy (University of Nottingham) is hosting a series of free workshops this summer. The series, led by consultant Alma Swan, is aimed at institutions’ research support officers, financial modellers and repository managers or administrators. These events will take place in Glasgow, London, Birmingham and Leeds from 15-29 July.
More information about open access and central funds can be found on our website. We have also published case studies of institutions which have successfully implemented central funds, including the University of Nottingham.
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