Electronic Publishing Trust for Development

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ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING TRUST FOR DEVELOPMENT
last up-dated January 3rd 2010

Petition for the EU Recommendation for guarenteed access to EU-funded research results continues to be supported,
and now reaches 28098 signatures!

**May 2010 be a breakthrough year for all working towards improving access to research publications! For a superb and comprehensive report on 2009 developments see Peter Suber's OAN, link below **

NOTE: For all recent OA developments, the first stop is Peter Suber's Open Access News (OAN)- it is updated daily.
This is now supplemented by the open access tracking project (OATP). For definitive information on all aspects of open access (scholarly, technical, policy), link to OASIS

[1] The US Office of Science and Technology Policy has issued a request for comments on their policy for access to research publications arising from S & T agency funding, see here. The Administration is dedicated to openness and transparency and the statement refers to various means to provide open access to S&Tpublications and other forms of research information.

[2] 'The DEPOT' goes international. Now any author without her/his own repository can deposit published articles in 'The DEPOT'. Based in the UK, articles are exported to authors' own repositories once they become available. Go to the link for details.

[3] Two new publications on the chain of communication from research publication to health workers have been published. One is as a Round Table discussion document in the August, 2009, WHO Bulletin, and the other in the journal, Open Medicine.

[4] EPT urges Obama research appointees to support open access to publicly funded research

The Electronic Publishing Trust for Development (EPT) was established in 1996 to facilitate open access to the world's scholarly literature and to support the electronic publication of reviewed bioscience journals from countries experiencing difficulties with traditional publication.

Scientists and publishers in many countries face problems both in accessing the world's research information and in gaining high visibility for their publications and national research output. The cost of printing and distributing journals leads to low circulation levels which in turn leads to a reluctance by scientists to publish. The outcome is the loss of much important scientific information which either remains unavailable to the international scientific community or suffers long delays in publication. The transfer of e-publishing technology and online distribution of such journals can greatly increase visibility and enrich the global knowledge base.

The main activities of the EPT are to:

provide awareness of the benefits of electronic publishing
support open access (OA) initiatives and make them known to developing country scientists and publishers
transfer e-publishing and OA technology through workshops, training and online resources
support management and distribution activities
provide e-publishing and OA advocacy through articles, presentations, workshops.

The Trust focuses on the biological sciences which, in such fields as infectious diseases, public health, tropical medicine, biodiversity, environmental and agricultural sciences, require a global picture. Local scientific information is critical, particularly in the case of human, animal and plant disease surveillance and conservation.

E-publishing workshop in Bangalore, India, November 2006

Registered Charity Number 1059867