Building on a previous development programme (Focus on Access to Institutional Resources - FAIR), the current Digital Repositories development programme [from JISC] consists of some 25 projects that are exploring the role and operation of repositories. Many of these are concerned with how repositories can help academic researchers both do and share their work more effectively. Open access is a key driver and demands are growing for the outputs of publicly-funded research to be freely available on the web....Repositories have a key role to play, since they both enable open access, and help universities and colleges manage the intellectual output of their researchers....In terms of active development, work is underway to help universities set up and populate repositories (Sherpa), to establish a Scottish research repository infrastructure (IRI Scotland), and to investigate the questions of different versions of academic papers (Versions).
In the rest of the article, Jacobs describes each of the other projects in the Digital Repositories Programme.
Update. Also see the JISC press release on Jacobs' article, February 16, 2006.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/15/2006 09:35:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
