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Just to prove a letter to your MP needn't be long or complex, here is the one I wrote to mine: -------------------------------- Hello Nigel You may recall helping put forward my evidence on this matter. The Committee's formal report recommended that all UK funded researchers should be required by their funders to self-archive all their published journal articles on their own institution's websites, thereby making them free for all users, worldwide: "This Report recommends that all UK higher education institutions establish institutional repositories on which their published output can be stored and from which it can be read, free of charge, online. It also recommends that Research Councils and other Government funders mandate their funded researchers to deposit a copy of allof their articles in this way." The government's response to this report is littered with evidence that it has been "got at" by the publishers' lobby (eg "The Government is not aware that there are problems in accessing scientific information, or that there is a large unsatisfied demand for this...(HC 1200, page 15.)). I suppose that was to be expected. But what was not expected was that the Government would reject this key recommendation, which would not have cost additional money, would definitely have enhanced the impact and value-for-money of UK research, and was not even opposed by the majority of publishers: "However the Government has no present intention to mandate Research Council funded researchers to deposit a copy of their published material in institutional repositories." (HC 1200, page 28.) I do hope that you will be willing to speak in favour of this recommendation in the debate in parliament Best Bruce *%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%**%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%* Prof B Royan www.concurrentcomputing.co.uk Concurrent Computing Ltd, 41 Greenhill Gardens Edinburgh, EH10 4BL United Kingdom +44 1314 4731 51 +44 77 1374 4731 *%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%**%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*