*Apologies for Cross-posting*

A new university repository providing free and open access to research and doctoral theses will be launched on December 4.

The Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) will be officially launched today by the Vice Chancellor Professor Chris Jenks. Also speaking at the event will be the Pro Vice Chancellor for Student Experience Professor Rob Macredie who has over twenty papers deposited and Gareth Johnson of Sherpa Romeo, a service site that provides a listing of publishers' copyright conditions as they relate to authors archiving their work on-line.

BURA will make journal articles conference papers, doctoral theses, recordings and images freely available via the internet, allowing users to read, download and copy material for non-commercial private study or research purposes.

Presently, there are more than 100 items on BURA and the number is increasing every day. These include some of the first PhDs accredited by Brunel University 40 years ago; an archive of contemporary poetry recordings deposited by Dr Andrea Brady of the School of Arts; and papers from Professor John Sumpter, one of the most cited scientists in the world, including his own 1977 thesis from the University of Wales in Bangor.

 John Murtagh, project manager of BURA said: "If you want the university to be more research-focused, you have got to get your research out there." The impetus for BURA has come from an increasing awareness that most research is publicly funded, and, therefore, should be publicly accessible.

He added: "There are obvious advantages for an academic. Self-archiving can increase the citation rate of a piece of written work by 25 to 250 per cent."

Brunel's School of Information Systems Computing and Mathematics is supporting the initiative to make it compulsory for researchers to deposit their journal articles and theses in BURA.

"This is not only very good news for the long-term success of BURA but for academics it will make readily available their research to the world. If it is successful, it could also lead onto the whole university adopting mandatory self-archiving."