Hello,
This is really a question for any publishers scanning this list, but UK
HE librarians will be interested in the answers.
The UK Research Assessment Exercise will occur again in 2008, with the
submission deadline being November 2007. The RAE will determine the
level of research funding granted to UK universities for the next few
years, and is therefore of vital importance. The RAE makes judgements on
the quality of research activity at each individual institution on the
basis of research outputs. These can be of several different sorts, but
the ones I'm concerned about here are published journal articles,
published conference proceedings and published books (and individual
book chapters).
The RAE guidelines have been published and are available here:
http://www.rae.ac.uk/pubs/2005/03/rae0305.pdf
Paragraph 96 states that institutions will be expected to make published
journal articles, conference proceedings and book chapters available "in
electronic format" to the assessors (who are usually academics from the
UK or overseas), and states "the method of submission may involve HEIs
depositing items onto a protected website or giving access to
institutional repositories of publications".
My questions to publishers are:
1) Has the Higher Education Funding Council for England made any
approaches to publishers regarding allowing electronic access to
published materials specifically for the RAE?
2) What are publishers' opinions on the copyright implications of this
(given that this access would be for a limited period, to a very limited
audience, and crucial for the main business of a UK university). Are
publishers likely to object strongly?
We have approached two or three major publishers with these questions,
but as yet have had no reply, so I would welcome any feedback!
Best wishes,
Kate Price
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Kate Price
E-Strategy & Resources Manager
University Library
University of Surrey
Guildford, UK
GU2 7XH
Tel: +44 (0)1483 682876
Fax: +44 (0)1483 689500
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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