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Chair was Dame Janet Finch; our terms of reference and a full list of members are at Annex A.
1.11. The digital revolution continues to bring profound change in the social and political, as well as the information environments. Our report comes at a time when there is increasing interest in issues of openness, transparency and trust across a wide range of sectors. We believe that it is essential that the research community as a whole, but also all those in society at large who have an interest in research and its findings, should benefit from the technological and other changes that enable easier and wider access to information than ever before. That is the way to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of research itself, but also its social and economic value and impact.
1.12. In seeking to fulfil the remit passed to us, we have focused on measures to speed process of transition to wider access, and on how to achieve that in a sustainable way. For we are clear that, however it is done, communicating research costs money, and that judgements about the most appropriate channels and mechanisms for increasing access are in part judgements about costs and benefits; and about who meets the costs and how.We have therefore been guided by four principles.
- i. Access: our aim is to increase access to the published findings of research produced in the UK and the rest of the world for the benefit not only of researchers but also for the many people and organisations—in the public, commercial and voluntary sectors, as well as in society at large—who have an interest in those findings.
- ii. Usability: there are now nearly two million peer-reviewed articles published in journals each year, along with huge volumes of monographs, reports working papers and other relevant information. In order to be able to use them effectively, researchers and others need help to navigate their way around and to interpret the inexorably-increasing volumes of research literature; and to be able to the full range of the latest tools to enable them to organise, analyse and manipulate the content relevant to their work.
- iii. Quality: UK researchers are world-leading in the quality as well as the quantity of the work they produce. Their standing is underpinned by systems to ensure that they have effective and high-quality channels through which they can publish and disseminate their findings, and that they perform to the best standards by subjecting their published findings to rigorous peer review. Neither the quality and standing of the UK research community nor the underpinning of high-quality publishing channels must be put at risk.
- iv. Costs and sustainability: the costs of research communications constitute a relatively small but nevertheless significant component in the overall costs of research. Those costs must be kept in check; but at the same time it is important that in seeking change, we do not put at risk the fundamental
