Biosciences Federation welcomes Universities UK guidelines on fund=

["Jennie Evans" <jennie.evans@endocrinology.org>]

For those of you who may not have seen this yet - please find
below a statement from the UK's Biosciences Federation on the
UUK/RIN guidelines on funding open access publishing.

BIOSCIENCES FEDERATION PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

Biosciences Federation welcomes Universities UK guidelines on
funding open access publishing

The Biosciences Federation supports the recommendations made by
the recent Universities UK report on open access publishing.
This report lays out guidelines to make it easier for researchers
to access funds to satisfy funding bodies' open access mandates.
The report recommends:

*Higher Education Institutions should each set up a dedicated
budget to pay author-side open access publication charges.

*Funding bodies should clarify how they will provide support for
researchers to meet their open access policies, especially
regarding the payment of open access publishing fees.

The guidelines also note that authors should make use of
resources such as the Biosciences Federation's "Authors' guide to
UK funders' policies on open access".

An earlier report by the Biosciences Federation identified that,
although funders were increasingly insistent on published
research being open access, researchers experienced considerable
difficultly in accessing the appropriate funds to do this.  This
new report, produced by Universities UK and the Research
Information Network, brought together representatives from
relevant stakeholders including funding bodies, publishers,
institutional administrators and the Biosciences Federation to
produce guidelines on how to implement fee-paid open access
sustainably.

Dr Richard Dyer OBE, Chief Executive of the Biosciences
Federation said:

"The Biosciences Federation has been aware for some time that the
main stumbling block to effectively implementing open access
policies is the need for a sustainable model of funding. This
report represents an important step towards achieving this. If
these guidelines are implemented, we will have a joined-up
approach that will enable authors to satisfy funding bodies'
requirements without relying on unfunded mandates. This can only
be good for science, researchers and the learned societies to
which they belong. The learned societies are important because of
the huge financial and professional support they provide to the
scientific community in the UK and beyond."

----------Ends----------

Notes for editors:

The full UUK/RIN report is available at:
http://www.rin.ac.uk/openaccess-payment-fees.

Learned societies' financial support to UK academia was recently
quantified in the results of a Bioscience Federation survey. The
17 societies surveyed made direct contributions to UK academia of
L3.9M, whilst taking only L1.8M in journal subscriptions, a net
direct contribution of L2.1M. (See
http://www.bsf.ac.uk/journals/BSF_survey_report_July_2008_FINAL.pdf.)

The Biosciences Federation (BSF) is a single authority
representing the UK's biological expertise, providing independent
opinion to inform public policy and promoting the advancement of
the biosciences. The BSF actively works to influence policy and
strategy in biology-based research - including funding and the
interface with other disciplines - and in school and university
teaching. The BSF is also concerned about the translation of
research into benefits for society, and about the impact of
legislation and regulations on the ability of those working in
teaching and research to deliver effectively.  The BSF supports
researchers through its Member societies, of which there are 45
plus 9 Associate Members.  These cover the full range of
biosciences from physiology and neuroscience, biochemistry and
microbiology, to ecology, taxonomy and environmental science. For
more information, please visit http://www.bsf.ac.uk.  The
Biosciences Federation Authors' guide to UK funders' policies on
open access is available at:
http://www.bsf.ac.uk/journals/journals_authors%27guide.htm

Emma Southern
Tel: 01223 400189
Email: esouthern.bsf@physoc.org

Jennie Evans
Tel: 01454 642 230
Email: jennie.evans@endocrinology.org