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UK PubMed Central launched

New online resource to promote free access to research and further biomedical discovery

9 January, 2007 - From today scientists will be able to access a vast collection of biomedical research and to submit their own published results for inclusion in a new online resource. Based on a model currently used by the US National Institute of Health, UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) will provide free access to a permanent online archive of peer-reviewed research papers in the medical and life sciences. See: www.ukpmc.ac.uk.

A nine-strong group of UK research funders, led by the Wellcome Trust, awarded the contract to develop UKPMC to a partnership between the British Library, The University of Manchester and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) last July.

Many members of this group now require that articles describing the results of research they support are made available in UKPMC with the aim of maximising its impact. The UKPMC service will ensure that articles resulting from research paid for by any member of the funding consortium will be freely available to everybody, fully searchable and extensively linked to other online resources.

Initially UKPMC mirrors the American PubMed Central database (hosted by the NCBI at NIH). From today, UK scientists will also be able to submit their research outputs for inclusion in UKPMC. Through 2007, and beyond, the partners will develop innovative tools for UKPMC to further support biomedical research. In this way, UKPMC will grow into a unique online resource representing the UK's biomedical research output.

Richard Boulderstone, Director of e-Strategy and Programmes at the British Library, said: "UK PubMed Central will offer a sophisticated and exciting new means of scholarly communication for biomedical researchers. Building on the complementary strengths that the Library and its partners, the University of Manchester and EMBL-EBI, bring to this project, we expect to create a platform for the development of a whole range of new services for the UK and European biomedical research community."

Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust commented: "Medical research is not complete until the results have been communicated. The development of UKPMC provides a great opportunity for this research to be made freely available, and I am very pleased that a first class partnership of the British Library, the University of Manchester, and the European Bioinformatics Institute will be running it."

He added: "This is only the start, however, and over the next few years the challenge will be to develop UKPMC so that it becomes the destination site of choice for the international biomedical research community and all those who are interested in discovering the results of groundbreaking research first hand."

The British Library will run the service, promote it to researchers, as well as offering support for those who want to include their research papers in UKPMC. The University of Manchester hosts the service - on servers based at MIMAS (Manchester Information and Associated Services) - and will support the process of engaging with higher-education users. EBI, which is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), will contribute its biomedical domain knowledge and state-of-the-art text-mining tools to integrate the research literature with the underlying bioinformatics databases.

The UKPMC funder group consists of: Arthritis Research Campaign, The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, The British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, The Association of Medical Research Charities, The Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Executive Health Department, the Department of Health, The Joint Information Systems Committee, the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust.

For further information please contact: Ben Sanderson at the British Library Press Office (telephone +44 (0)1937 546126, email: ben.sanderson@bl.uk) or Lawrence Christensen (telephone +44 (0)20 7412 7114, email: lawrence.christensen@bl.uk)

Notes for Editors:

  1. UK PubMed Central can be accessed at: www.ukpmc.ac.uk.
  2. The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The British Library's collections include 150 million items from every era of written human history beginning with Chinese oracle bones dating from 300 BC, right up to the latest e-journals. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk.
  3. The University of Manchester is Britain 's largest single-site university with a proud history of achievement and an ambitious agenda for the future. It boasts 36,000 students, 4,500 academic and research staff and 500 degree courses. The University has an exceptional record of generating and sharing new ideas and innovations and is one of the world's top centres for biomedical research. Manchester's total expenditure on research in 2003/4 was £269.5 million which has led to a quality, breadth and volume of research activity unparalleled in the UK, as demonstrated by the results of the independent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Further information is available at www.manchester.ac.uk.
  4. Manchester Information and Associated Services (MIMAS) is a national data centre run by Manchester Computing at The University of Manchester, providing the UK and international education and research community with networked access to key data and information resources to support teaching, learning and research across a wide range of disciplines. For more information, visit www.mimas.ac.uk.
  5. The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and is located on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in Hinxton near Cambridge (UK). The EBI grew out of EMBL's pioneering work in providing public biological databases to the research community. It hosts some of the world's most important collections of biological data, including DNA sequences (EMBL-Bank), protein sequences (UniProt), animal genomes (Ensembl), three-dimensional structures (the Macromolecular Structure Database), data from microarray experiments (ArrayExpress), protein-protein interactions (IntAct), pathway information (Reactome) and the biomedical literature (CiteXplore). The EBI hosts several research groups and its scientists continually develop new tools for the biocomputing community.
  6. The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is a basic research institute funded by public research monies from 19 member states (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). Research at EMBL is conducted by approximately 80 independent groups covering the spectrum of molecular biology. The Laboratory has five units: the main Laboratory in Heidelberg, and Outstations in Hinxton (the European Bioinformatics Institute), Grenoble, Hamburg, and Monterotondo near Rome. The cornerstones of EMBL's mission are: to perform basic research in molecular biology; to train scientists, students and visitors at all levels; to offer vital services to scientists in the member states; to develop new instruments and methods in the life sciences and to actively engage in technology transfer activities. EMBL's International PhD Programme has a student body of about 170. The Laboratory also sponsors an active Science and Society programme. Visitors from the press and public are welcome.
  7. The UKPMC Funders are:
    • The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK and the second largest medical research charity in the world. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending around £500 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing. Website: www.wellcome.ac.uk
    • Arthritis Research Campaign (arc) is the fourth largest medical research charity in the UK and the major funder of research into the cause, treatment and cure of arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases. See: www.arc.org.uk/
    • The Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) is a membership organisation of the leading UK charities that fund medical and health research. AMRC aims to provide effective support and leadership for its members and the wider charity sector involved in medical and health research through the provision of information and guidance and a strong and credible representative voice. See: www.amrc.org.uk/
    • The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is the UK's principal funder of basic and strategic biological research. To deliver its mission, BBSRC supports research and research training in universities and research centres throughout the UK, including BBSRC-sponsored Institutes; and promotes knowledge transfer from research to applications in business, industry and policy, and public engagement in the biosciences. See: www.bbsrc.ac.uk
    • The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is the largest funder in the UK of research into cardiovascular disease, and currently supports over 1000 research projects and funds over 30 BHF professors. In addition the BHF plays an important role in educating the public and health professionals, provides life-saving cardiac equipment, and funds cardiac nurses in hospitals and the community. See: www.bhf.org.uk/
    • Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's leading independent organisation dedicated to cancer research. With an annual scientific spend of £217 million, CRUK funds over 3,000 world-class scientists, doctors and nurses in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. See: www.cancerresearchuk.org/
    • The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) is the division of the Scottish Executive Health Department which supports and promotes high quality research aimed at improving the services offered by NHSScotland, and the health of the people of Scotland. See: www.show.scot.nhs.uk/cso
    • The Department of Health (DH) aims to improve the health and well-being of people in England. The Department sets overall policy on all health issues and is responsible for the provision of health services through the National Health Service. See: www.dh.gov.uk
    • The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) supports further and higher education by providing strategic guidance, advice and opportunities to use Information and Communications Technology to support teaching, learning, research and administration. JISC is funded by all the UK further and higher education funding councils. See: www.jisc.ac.uk
    • The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a national organisation funded by the UK taxpayer. Its business is medical research aimed at improving human health; everyone stands to benefit from the outputs. The research it supports and the scientists it trains meet the needs of the health services, the pharmaceutical and other health-related industries and the academic world. See: www.mrc.ac.uk