British Library - Press and Policy Centre - A boost for biomedical and health researchers as UK PubMed Central embraces Europe

“One of Europe’s biggest funders of scientific research, the European Research Council (ERC), announced today that it will be joining UK PubMed Central (UKPMC), the online information service which provides biomedical and health researchers free access to millions of resources at the touch of a button. The ERC joins 18 existing funders of UKPMC and, in recognition of the increased representation from Europe, the service will be renamed Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) from 1 November this year. The ERC, like all existing funders of the service, will require any publications resulting from the life sciences research it supports to be made freely available in Europe PMC, opening up exciting opportunities for researchers. These articles will add to the 2.2 million full text items already available, as well as over 26 million PubMed abstracts, and international patents from the European Patent Office, all easily searchable via an integrated full text and abstract search tool. The grant lookup tool, which provides information on 40,000 grants awarded by existing funders, will also expand to include ERC funding details. This service will enable researchers to gain a comprehensive picture of the life sciences funding landscape. The British Library, one of three development partners in UKPMC since its inception in 2006, welcomes the new potential for innovation and collaboration that this development will bring to the global life sciences research community... Dr Tim Hunt, Chair of the Working Group on Open Access for the ERC's Scientific Council and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2001), said: ‘By joining 'Europe PMC', we will enable the ERC to fully realise its open access policy and allow the research that it funds to be fully integrated into the world’s premier literature service. We believe free online access to these articles is the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of ERC projects are accessed, read and used by researchers in the future.’ It is hoped the ERC’s decision will encourage other European funders to follow suit and thus expand the Europe PMC resource even further, building exciting new potential for the life sciences community across the globe.”