Our solution

For the past two decades researchers at Southampton have been exploring ways in which to implement the open access agenda.

A seminal paper published by Professor Stevan Harnad, from Southampton’s Web and Internet Science Research Group, sparked an international debate on systematically disseminating academic research online to address the limitations of traditional publishing. This was followed in 1995 by the launch of the Open Journal project and the creation of one of the first central open access repositories – Cogprints – to share the latest research in cognitive sciences.

Research at Southampton has resulted in software products being developed that have enabled large numbers of research institutions to implement their own digital research repositories. The team developed EPrints, a generic, open source institutional repository system that can also be used as a platform to track the impact and use of each university’s research.

They have also collaborated with the Centre for Research Communications at the University of Nottingham to develop and promote open access services.