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-          With Apologies for Cross Posting  -

News Release

Jisc Collections and Open Access Key to collaborate on UK Gold OA article payments pilot

London 23 January 2013: Jisc Collections, the UK academic community's shared service for content licensing and administration, has entered into an agreement with Open Access Key (OAK), the online payment platform for open access publishing, to run a 12 month pilot project, Jisc APC, to test its role in managing and processing Gold OA article payment charges made by its member institutions.

Lorraine Estelle, CEO of Jisc Collections said: "We are very pleased to be partnering with OAK which will test the efficiencies that a trusted third party can bring to the processing of Gold OA payments for both institutions and publishers. We hope that this extension of our established activity in the area of subscription-based resources will help all relevant stakeholders move forward during this transition phase in scholarly publishing."

The new Jisc APC service will seek to reduce the administrative burden on the various parties involved in making an article available. The combined offering brings together OAK's innovation in this new area and the trusted status of Jisc Collections in processing and managing payments on behalf of UK institutions and publishers.  An invitation to participate will shortly be issued by Jisc Collections to UK Institutions interested in joining the project. Discussions with publishers will commence at the same time. The pilot will be overseen by a Steering Group comprising stakeholders and funders from across the education and research sector.

Simon Thomson, CEO of Open Access Key said: "Jisc Collections has shown tremendous initiative with this project to provide leadership and structure for the academic and publishing community following the Finch Report recommendations. We in turn are delighted that OAK has been selected to provide the financial and administrative workflow platform. We have worked closely with individual academics, universities, research funders and publishers to create a time and cost efficient service with user friendly functionality. We are excited to continue this development working for Jisc Collections and the stakeholders in the project."

The pilot commences officially on 2 April 2013 and is in response to the publication of the Finch Report in the UK and the subsequent announcements from RCUK.  The report recommended a balanced programme of action to enable more people to read and use the publications arising from research, and to accelerate the progress towards a fully open access environment. The report also made a clear policy direction towards the support for Gold OA publishing in the UK, where publishers receive their revenues from authors rather than readers, and so research articles become freely accessible to everyone immediately upon publication.

To find out more please contact Paul Harwood, Jisc Collections deputy CEO on [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

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Notes to Editors:

About Jisc:
Jisc is an independent education charity, owned by AoC, GuildHE and UUK. It provides UK higher education, further education and skills sectors support on the use of digital technologies. It provides advice and guidance through Jisc Advance and owns a subsidiary company, Jisc Collections and Janet Ltd, which provides an academic telecommunications network and content services for over 18 million users across the UK.
Jisc's vision is to make the UK the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world. Jisc's mission is to enable the education sector in the UK to perform at the forefront of international practice by exploiting fully the possibilities of modern digital empowerment, content and connectivity.
For media queries please contact the Jisc press office on 0117 331 0657 or [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

About Open Access Key:
Open Access Key (OAK) provides global workflow solutions to the academic publishing community to save time and cost and drive efficiencies. OAK offers clearing house management services specifically designed to facilitate the handling of publication charges (APCs). The web-based system tracks and records research output and expenditure while reducing the burden of administration for academic authors, research institutions, publishers and funders. Functionality includes consolidated payments, the ability to split APCs fairly and aiding compliance with repository submission policies.





Paul Harwood
Deputy CEO
JISC Collections
T: 02030066085
E: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
W: www.jisc-collections.ac.uk<http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/>


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