York’s Steacie Science & Engineering Library will today celebrate the launch of PubMed Central (PMC) Canada, a new Canadian partner in an international network providing free or open access to health research.
Faculty and graduate students are invited to find out how York University Libraries can help make their research available to the world through PMC Canada. Join the science librarians at Steacie Science & Engineering Library at 4:30pm and listen to guest speakers, including Lesley Beagrie, associate dean of professional & international programs in the Faculty of Health; Gordon Flett, associate dean of research & graduate education in the Faculty of Health; and biology University Professor Ron Pearlman of the Faculty of Science & Engineering. Pearlman has worked extensively with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in encouraging faculty to support open access (OA) publishing.
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| Above: A screenshot of a listing of some of the open access life science journal articles in PMC Canada |
On April 28, the National Research Council’s Canada Institute for Scientific & Technical Information in partnership with the CIHR and the US National Library of Medicine, launched PubMed Central (PMC) Canada. PMC Canada enables CIHR-funded researchers to deposit their peer-reviewed articles for global exposure online along with content from PMC US and UK PubMed Central.
Benefits of PMC Canada:
- It has higher citation numbers than traditional journals.
- International exposure will put York research on the global map.
- York researchers already have over 300 entries in PubMed.
- Health researchers worldwide will be able to access CIHR-funded research.
- Links to the free full-text publication will speed up the grant review process.
The Problem: Tackling the World’s Health Issues
While much funding has been dedicated to basic and applied (clinical) research, there has not been a process to ensure that the findings are made available to policy-makers and practitioners so that people and institutions can benefit from the research. Emerging trends require that research agendas not only involve the creation of knowledge, but also a plan to facilitate the use of that knowledge, otherwise known as knowledge translation.
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| Above: A screenshot of PubMed Central Canada on the York University Libraries Web site |
A Solution: Open Access
The emphasis on knowledge translation has driven the groundswell of interest in OA publishing in recent years. The scholarly community and CIHR believe that greater access to research publications and data will promote the ability of researchers in Canada and abroad to use and build on previous knowledge to address today’s health challenges. Only when research findings are widely available can evidence be translated into policies, technologies, health-related standards and practices, and new avenues of research.
York University Libraries initiated author support for OA publishing in 2005. Librarians offer workshops and online resources and meet with researchers to encourage them to make their research available through YorkSpace, York’s repository of research.
Increasing York’s Research Impact
CIHR, along with a growing number of granting agencies, has adopted an OA policy requiring that the results of all CIHR-funded projects are made freely accessible online as of Jan. 1, 2008. Grantees may set up an account to facilitate access to their research publications through PMC Canada. York researchers already have over 300 entries in PubMed, and soon all CIHR-supported researchers will be involved in the endeavour. Some publishers already deposit entire journal issues in PMC Canada.
For more information, visit the York University Libraries Web site or the PMC Canada Web site.