Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Saturday, May 16, 2009

RIN developing a scholarly communications toolkit

If you recall, in February 2007 the Research Information Network (RIN) developed a set of seven principles for public policy on scholarly communications.  Because the principles were vague and non-committal on OA, they could be signed by proponents (JISC, the RCUK, and the Wellcome Trust) and opponents (ALPSP, the Publishers Association, and STM) of strong OA policy.  See my comments on the principles at the time.

RIN hasn't forgotten them, and is now commissioning a toolkit to help stakeholders put the principles into practice.  From its announcement:

The RIN has commissioned Mark Ware Consulting, working in partnership with Searchlighter, to help it formulate a web-based toolkit to support key stakeholders (especially research funders, higher education institutions, libraries and publishers) to apply the common principles set out in the Research and the Scholarly Communications Process: towards strategic goals for public policy.

The project will run from March to November 2009.

The toolkit will provide guidance to relevant stakeholders in relation to each principle constituting the statement of principles, and their roles in applying them. It will encourage reflection on how the agendas of different stakeholders might be aligned behind common goals and conflicts of interests resolved.

Also see Mark Ware's blog post on the new project.