Wednesday, August 16, 2006

SHERPA Juliet, and the UK Natural Environment Research Council OA Mandate

The UK Natural Enviroment Research Council is the latest funding agency to announce an OA Mandate, NERC Guidance on Access to Research Outputs.

Details can be found on the new SHERPA Juliet site, which lists and summarizes research funders' open access policies.

Thanks to Peter Suber on Open Access News, who comments that, this is wonderful news, and with one exception, this policy is all that one could ask.

From my point of view, this is wonderful news, period! The one exception that Peter refers to is reference to publishers' embargo periods. My reading of the policy is that it reflects a willingness to accept current publisher practices, but reserves the right to shift to a stronger policy in the event of publisher backsliding.

Many thanks to Bill Hubbard and the SHERPA crew for Juliet!

This post reflects my personal opinion only and does not represent the opinions or policy of the BC Electronic Library Network or the Simon Fraser University Library.

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