The Biochemical Society and Portland Press Limited have announced their participation in the Access to Research initiative, providing free licensed access to over a quarter of a million journal articles and conference proceedings through participating UK libraries.
Through Portland Press Limited, the Society's wholly-owned publishing subsidiary, the Biochemical Journal, Clinical Science and Biochemical Society Transactions have joined over 3000 peer-reviewed journals included in the initiative.
Access to Research is the result of a unique collaboration between publishers and public libraries, under the leadership of the Publishers Licensing Society, and was launched in response to the Finch Report, 'Accessibility, Sustainability, Excellence: How to expand access to research'. The Finch Report recommended that the major subscription publishers should grant public libraries a licence to provide free-access to peer-reviewed journals and conference proceeding.
All public libraries throughout the UK are being encouraged to participate in the two-year pilot through their local authorities.
