RLUK

In November 2010 RLUK announced an initiative to work with JISC Collections and publishers to achieve reductions in the journal costs of the ‘big deals’ that protect the long-term interests of UK universities. This objective forms part of a broader range of work intended to make the process for publishing academic journals fairer and more effective. By ‘effective’ we imply a process that guarantees quality and ensures widespread and easy availability. By ‘fair’ we imply that the costs and profits of disseminating research should be fairly and reasonably divided between the participants. As well as the initiative to reduce journal costs, a second strand will extend our well-established commitment to support open access to research outputs through the practical encouragement of both repository-based and publisher based approaches. The aim of both strands is to achieve reduced costs for RLUK members and greater take-up of open access to achieve greater visibility and use of UK research outputs.