The UK’s version of a digital archive of peer-reviewed research papers will be further developed after getting a cash injection of £1.3 million.
Eight leading biomedical research funding organisations, including Government bodies, research councils and charities, approved the three-year funding boost for the UK PubMed Central website, which will see major improvements to the site.
The digital archive of medical and life science research papers was originally launched in January 2007 and was based on the US open-access model of the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed Central database.
Since its launch, the site has expanded to offer 1.3 million full-text, peer-review research papers.
The new funds will see developments that include: direct links to the 18 million records currently available on the US version; 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 such as clinical guidelines, technical reports and conference proceedings; and an easy-to-use, intuitive interface.
“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,” said Richard Boulderstone, the British Library’s Director of eStrategy.
The development will be carried out by the British Library, the University of Manchester and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute, in close consultation with the UK’s biomedical and health researchers.
