What is JISCMail?

The National Academic Mailing List Service, known as 'JISCMail', is a service designed specifically for the further and higher education and research communities and is one of a number of services provided by JISC Advance therefore making it the foremost strategic collaboration tool within the academic community.

JISCMail uses the world wide web and e-mail to enable groups of academics and support staff to talk to each other and to share information. There are thousands of groups covering many categories. If you are unable to find a group on your chosen subject and you can satisfy the JISC criteria, you may start a group of your own.

Why should I use JISCMail?

JISCMail can be used for sharing ideas, collaborating on projects, announcing events, seeking advice and generally keeping up-to-date with new ideas and developments in your field. This can prevent duplication of effort, reduce a sense of isolation and add a feeling of immediacy and excitement to the development of ideas.

How do I use JISCMail?

You don't need to be a computer expert to use JISCMail; all you need is web access or email. You join a group in your subject area and then you will start to receive email from the group. If you want to participate in discussions or ask a question, you send a message to the group email address. This message will then be automatically sent out to all the group members, so everyone will receive their own copy of your message.

Getting started

You can find out more about using JISCMail from our website at:

http://www.JISCMail.ac.uk

From here you can access all the publicly available groups and groups archives, searching and sorting facilities, documentation and related information.

If you don't have access to the Web, JISCMail can be fully controlled using e-mail. For a command reference guide, complete with examples, send the following text in the body of a message addressed to LISTSERV@JISCMail.ac.uk:

get LISTSERV-commands.ref

What if I need help?

JISCMail provides a high level of user support. There is extensive documentation available online and in printable format.

Human help is also on hand! Each group is managed by one or more group owners who are interested in the subject area. You can contact them with any queries or problems you have about being a member of their group by sending an e-mail to:

LISTNAME-request@JISCMail.ac.uk

Alternatively, you can contact the JISCMail Helpline at:

helpline@JISCMail.ac.uk