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The costs would be relatively modest, although since the largest and most research-intensive institutions enjoy access to the great majority of journals already, the benefit-cost ratio would be relatively modest too.
8.20. In the health sector, there is scope for increasing and rationalising arrangements for licensed access across the NHS, and greater co-ordination with the HE sector. Again, providing access to all relevant journals for all those who work in the NHS would cost relatively little on top of what is already spent on licences.
8.21. Extending current licensing arrangements in sectors beyond higher education and the NHS would bring undoubted benefits too. Extensions to cover the various organisations in large sectors of society and the economy such as central and local Government, business (especially SMEs) and the voluntary sector would raise some difficult practical issues, and the costs could be relatively high. Nevertheless, we believe that publishers, representative bodies for key sectors, libraries and other organisations with relevant expertise should work together to consider the terms and costs of broader licence agreements; and possible sources of funding. It will be important in such discussions to ensure that extended access is not restricted to the titles of the large publishers, but includes also the many journals—many of them highly valuable in their fields—published by smaller publishers including learned societies.
8.22. In the meantime, we strongly recommend that the two proposals that have emerged during the course of our discussions should be taken forward. First, JISC Collections should explore with publishers and universities the scope for introducing licences which would allow members of R&D-intensive SMEs to gain online access to journals which are currently accessible only to members of a university. That would make a real difference to researchers and others in micro-enterprises that cannot afford large licence packages themselves.
8.23. Second, we warmly welcome the proposal to provide walk-in access to journals in public libraries, and perhaps also some learned society libraries too. Much of the detail is still to be worked out. But so long as the initiative is accompanied by effective marketing, and by guidance for both librarians and users on the nature of journals and their contents, and on how best to navigate to relevant material, it will have an immediate effect in extending access for the benefit of everyone in the country. It will also help to strengthen the usage and value of public libraries in the communities they serve.
Repositories
8.24. The evidence suggests that—beyond the relatively narrow range of subjects and disciplines that support large-scale repositories—the impact of repositories on researcher behaviour has so far been limited. Moreover, the UK on its own can do little to increase access via repositories to the great majority of global publications that are produced by researchers in other countries. Unless there are significant moves overseas, much of the research published by researchers from China, North
