Amsterdam, 24 January, 2011 – Elsevier, the world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, and the Robert Koch Institute announced they have entered into a two-year trial agreement enabling researchers at Robert Koch Institute to systematically post their manuscripts in the institutional repository.
Elsevier and the Robert Koch Institute share the goal of broadening access to scientific information. The partnership serves this goal, and it makes the work of authors of the Robert Koch Institute and the contribution of the institute to research more visible and useful. Many scientists have a desire to post their manuscripts in their institutions' repositories, but feel reluctant to do so without the consent of their publisher. This type of agreement helps solve that issue.
"Elsevier is committed to ensuring universal access to research articles in a sustainable way," said Alicia Wise, Director of Universal Access at Elsevier. "We permit voluntary posting by authors on their web sites or in repositories organized by institutions to which the author is affiliated – or was affiliated at the time of the preparation of the manuscript. Agreements like this between Elsevier and a research institution enable authors to post their manuscripts with full confidence that they are consistent with the requirements of both the institution and publisher.
"This type of agreement facilitates access to research through institutional repositories, helping authors, institutions and publishers reach out to an even wider audience," she added. "We hope to achieve similar agreements with other institutions in 2011."
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
About Robert Koch Institute
The Robert Koch Institute (www.rki.de) is the German central federal institution responsible for disease control and prevention and is the national reference institution for the Public Health Sector.
Apart from the enforcement of special laws, the tasks at the Robert Koch Institute include the obligation to compile scientific findings as a basis for political decisions concerning health issues. The Robert Koch Institute communicates and cooperates with partners in the scientific sector, the Public Health Service and the Health Care Sector. The institute has major responsibilities in the field of scientific investigation, epidemiologic and medical analysis and evaluation of dangerous diseases and those with a high prevalence or of increased public or health-related political significance.
In 2007 the Robert Koch Institute signed the Berlin Declaration of Open Access.
With the launch of the institutional repository (http://edoc.rki.de) in April 2009, the Robert Koch Institute provides the possibility to deposit publications from its scientists and institutional information and make them more visible and accessible. .
The Robert Koch Institute is currently the only German Federal Departmental Research Establishment that runs a institutional repository.