The RIN is a new organisation, set up with £3m from the UK's three higher education funding bodies, three national libraries and eight research councils to "lead and coordinate new developments in the collaborative provision of research information for the benefit of researchers in the UK". According to the plan, the RIN has six "strategic aims", each as enigmatic as the other. Aim one, for example, is to develop a "strategic framework for enhancing the UK research information infrastructure"....[I]ts work will stretch across all disciplines, from life sciences to humanities. It will cover all aspects of academic research....Last month, the RIN launched a study into the way UK research funders manage the outputs of the work they fund. The study will report its findings in March. The RIN is also commissioning an analysis of the behaviour, perceptions and needs of the users of UK research, which will report in June.
Excerpt from the RIN Strategic Plan:
The mission of the RIN...is to "lead and co-ordinate new developments in the collaborative provision of research information for the benefit of researchers in the UK."...Key tasks in the initial stages of the RIN's existence will be to:...[2] provide...advice to JISC and other bodies on key collections and other resources to which the research community requires access; and [3] review the studies available on the behaviour of researchers in finding, accessing, and using information in a variety of formats; and commission as appropriate further studies in a range of disciplines in order to provide a better understanding of how services might be developed better to meet their needs....Aim 4. To co-ordinate action to improve the arrangements for researchers to find information sources relevant to their work, and how they may gain access to them....[T]he RIN will work with others to:...ensure that researchers from all parts of the UK are provided with effective and user-friendly access to the national distributed collection....In order to improve researchers' ability to access and to use the research outputs and other relevant information they need, the RIN will work with others to ensure, on a sustainable basis, that [1] as much relevant material as possible is made available to researchers through sustainable stores; [2] so far as possible, both published and unpublished material from different sources is made available to researchers interoperably, and that there are as few restrictions as possible on access to material by bona fide researchers across the UK....[RIN will] work with the Research Councils and others to produce model guidelines on researchers' responsibilities with regard to the outputs they produce....Other work will...follow-up...the current project to deliver an infrastructure to support the deposit, access and use of research theses for the UK HE sector.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/27/2005 11:08:00 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.
