Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications

"This report, Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications, is the product of a year’s work by a committed and knowledgeable group of individuals drawn from academia, research funders and publishing. The task which we were set was by no means straightforward. We were charged with recommending how to develop a model, which would be both effective and sustainable over time, for expanding access to the published findings of research. There is no simple answer to the question set. Indeed had there been a simple answer there would have been no need to undertake this exercise. Members of the group represented different constituencies who have legitimately different interests and different priorities, in relation to the publication of research and its subsequent use. What united them however was a commitment to work towards an outcome which, although inevitably not perfect from any constituency’s individual perspective, would signal an acceptable and sustainable future...."