WIREDGOV

HEFCE welcomes the report of a working group on expanding access to published research findings.

We have previously made clear our commitment to ensuring that the findings and other outputs from publicly funded research are made promptly and freely available to the widest possible audience.

We endorse the group’s conclusions that:

• we should embrace open access publication and accelerate progress towards this in a way that also promotes innovative approaches to sharing research outcomes
• a clear policy direction should now be set towards this, funded initially by article-processing charges. 

We would hope to see higher education institutions establish channels for paying such charges at a reasonable level, drawing on HEFCE grant alongside other funding sources.

We will be discussing with our partners and stakeholders what further action we might take to support and encourage this move, and will make a further statement in due course.

Notes

1. A working group was set up in September 2011 to examine how UK-funded research findings can be made more accessible. The group is chaired by Dame Janet Finch DBE, Professor of Sociology at Manchester University and independent co-Chair of the Council for Science and Technology. It is made up of representatives from the higher education sector, research funders, the research community, scholarly publishers, and libraries.

2. The report is available on the Research Information Network web-site.