The Why and How of JISC Support for Open Access

Abstract

The acronym JISC stands for Joint Information Systems Committee, and it is funded by and responsible to the UK Higher Education and Further Education Funding Councils. Although still a Committee, it is in practice also an organisation, with an Executive and a budget. The Committee agrees the overall strategy and much of the implementation of that Strategy is carried out within six sub-committees and working groups responsible to those sub-committees. The commitment to support open access – for example JISC’s signature to the Berlin Declaration - is set at main Committee level, but the implementation of the commitment to open access falls under the Content Services Sub-Committee and the Integrated Information Environment Sub-Committee, and in turn much of the detailed work is carried out within the Journals Working Group, the Repositories and Preservation Advisory Group, and the Scholarly Communication Group. Each of these sub-committees and groups has in membership a mix of academic and library staff from universities and colleges, together with members of the JISC Executive and when appropriate some international members.