Dear Colleagues

Please find enclosed the library press release for the BioMed Deal.

Library/Publishing Media
Press Release:  19 June 2003
For Immediate Release


JISC funds BioMed Central membership for all UK universities 180
institutions join in largest consortium deal to date

More than 80,000 biology and medical researchers working at UK
universities can now share their research findings freely with fellow
researchers, funding bodies, students, journalists, and the general
public worldwide. Making the results of science and medical research
openly available will aid the global advancement of science and
healthcare. Publishing in freely accessible online journals will also
make the UK higher education system more cost-effective, by reducing the
amount of money spent on journal subscriptions.

The landmark deal announced today by The Joint Information Systems
Committee (JISC), a joint committee of the UK further and higher
education funding bodies, and open access publisher BioMed Central
places the UK at the forefront of the drive to make scientific research
freely available on the Internet. The 15 month BioMed Central membership
agreement commences on the 1 July.  From this date article-processing
charges will be waived - for all UK higher education staff - when
publishing in any of BioMed Central's 90+ peer-reviewed journals in
which all research content is freely accessible.

Dr Alicia Wise, Head of Development at JISC, explains the commitment by
JISC to fund open access publishing for the entire UK Higher Education
community:

"This ground-breaking deal represents a major shift in the way that
research is undertaken and its outputs published and shared. The
implications for research and for our educational institutions beyond
the health and medical field are immense."

The JISC deal means that 180 universities in the UK will now become
BioMed Central members. Together with the recent NHS England membership
agreement1, the vast majority of research produced in the UK could be
published in open access journals at no cost to the individual author.
These two major consortium deals indicate that UK libraries are leading
the way in adopting open access on a national scale.

Publisher Jan Velterop explains why this is so exciting for BioMed
Central:

"JISC's support is of huge significance. The UK is taking the fastest
and the largest steps to become a completely open access environment for
the sharing of biology and medical research results. Unrestricted access
to the majority of UK biomedical research output is now a very real
possibility. This represents our largest deal to date, and is a sure
sign that the tide has turned to embrace open access."

BioMed Central now has more members in the UK than in any other country.
The UK is a major contributor to the global advance of knowledge. With
just 1% of the world's population, Britain funds 4.5% of all scientific
research, and produces 8.5% of the research articles that are published
worldwide.2 BioMed Central and JISC look forward to seeing a
fast-increasing proportion of these articles published with open access,
for the benefit of science and society at large.


1 Please see press release
http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/pr-releases?pr=20030306
2 Quoted in Tony Blair's speech on scientific research to the Royal
Society.
The Guardian, Thursday May 23, 2002,
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4420151,00.html


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Interviews and Further Information:

The following individuals are available for interviews with the press
about this deal:

JISC
[JISC representative]
Job Title
Telephone
Email address

BioMed Central
[JISC representative]
Job Title
Telephone
Email address


Press Office Contacts:
Grace Baynes for BioMed Central
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 2988
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

Philip Pothen for JISC
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7848 2935
E-mail: [log in to unmask]



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About BioMed Central

BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com)is an independent online
publishing house committed to providing immediate access without charge
to the peer-reviewed biological and medical research it publishes. This
commitment is based on the view that open access to research is
essential to the rapid and efficient communication of science. In
addition to open-access original research, BioMed Central also publishes
reviews and other subscription-based content.

BioMed Central's business model is based on charging authors to publish,
and then making the content free to readers. Under the agreement,
article-processing charges are waived - for all UK higher education
staff - for publication in any of BioMed Central's 90 peer-reviewed
journals. Upon acceptance, the article becomes available online without
charge to readers worldwide. Many researchers from UK institutions have
already published in BioMed Central journals.

BioMed Central's Institutional Membership Program was launched in
January 2002 and now has well over 300 members, including some of the
world's most prestigious academic institutions. Harvard, Yale, NHS
England, Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and
the World Health Organization are all BioMed Central Institutional
Members.

About the JISC

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is a joint committee of
the UK further and higher education funding bodies, and is responsible
for supporting the innovative use of information and communication
technology (ICT) to support learning, teaching, and research.  It is
best known for providing the SuperJANET network, a range of advice and
support services, and a portfolio of high-quality resources.

Information about the JISC, its services and programmes can be found at
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/. Contact Philip Pothen on +44 (0)20 7848 2935,
email [log in to unmask]

-------------------------------------
Brian Mitchell
Collections Promotion Manager
Joint Information Systems Committee
King's College London
Strand Bridge House
3rd Floor
138-142 Strand
London WC2R 1HH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7848 1736
Fax: +44 (0)20 7848 2939