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Leading research institutions to further develop free global online access to findings of UK life sciences

  • Life sciences website UK PubMed Central to become the essential gateway for the UK’s biomedical and health science researchers

Eight leading biomedical research funding organisations, including Government bodies, Research Councils and Charities, have approved funding to further develop the UK PubMed Central website (www.ukpmc.ac.uk) over the next three years.

The development will be carried out by the British Library, the University of Manchester and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), in close consultation with the UK’s biomedical and health researchers.

Since being launched in January 2007, UKPubMed Central has expanded to offer 1.3 million full-text, peer-reviewed research papers through its online digital archive. The new and improved features will include:

  • Direct links to the 18 million records currently available on the US version of PubMed as part of the European Bioinformatics Institute’s CiteXplore bibliographic tool
  • New ways to extract biological information from research papers using text analysis and data-mining tools
  • Access to content not included in traditional journal literature - clinical guidelines, technical reports and conference proceedings
  • An easy-to-use, intuitive interface

Richard Boulderstone, the British Library’s Director of eStrategy, says: “These developments will significantly boost UK PubMed Central’s accessibility and make it an invaluable first point of call for the UK’s life sciences researchers. The British Library is excited to be involved in a programme that provides such a wealth of freely available information for the benefit of this research community.”

Dr Tony Peatfield, Chair of the UK PubMed Central funders group and Head of Policy at the Medical Research Council, says: “This work really provides us with an opportunity to augment the highly popular US version of PubMed Central with resources and features which are adapted to the needs of the UK’s biomedical and health sciences researchers. We are confident that the expertise of the partners working on the development activities – the British Library, the European Bioinformatics Institute, and Mimas and NaCTeM at the University of Manchester – will build the foundations of a valuable and sustainable resource to benefit the UK’s research community in years to come.”

For more information and interviews please contact the British Library Press Office contact Suvi Kankainen suvi.kankainen@bl.uk / +44(0)20 7412 7105 or Lawrence Christensen lawrence.christensen@bl.uk / +44(0)20 7412 7114.

Notes for Editors

1. UK PubMed Central (www.ukpmc.ac.uk) is a UK initiative of PubMed Central, the free archive of life sciences journals developed by the National Institutes of Health National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). NCBI is based at the National Library of Medicine in the United States. Read more on PubMed Central’s international initiative here: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/about/pmci.html

2. UK PubMed Central mission is to become the information resource of choice for the UK biomedical and health research community by:

  • Establishing and expanding a single sustainable repository for UK-funded research outputs
  • Developing innovative tools to enable better and more effective use of the existing content
  • Providing access to additional content that integrates seamlessly into the UK PubMed Central web-site
  • Creating comprehensive analysis and reporting tools for researchers and funders to inform strategy and policy making

3. UK PubMed Central is supported with funding from:
Arthritis Research Campaign, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Chief Scientist Office, Department of Health, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust.

4. The development partners for UK PubMed Central are:
The British Library, Mimas and NaCTeM (National Centre for Text Mining) at the University of Manchester, the European Bioinformatics Institute.

5. The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest research libraries. 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 Library's collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation. It includes: books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages www.bl.uk