Major research funders welcome advent of biological science research archive

A freely accessible digital archive of UK research papers in the biological sciences came a step closer to realisation this week as applications were sought to run UK PubMed Central.

Research funders hope the service will mirror the US PubMed Central service operated by the US-based National Library of Medicine.

Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: "We are committed to achieving the maximum impact from research we fund. A UK PubMed Central will give users the widest access to information with an assurance of quality. It will provide a freely accessible archive for researchers to deposit papers."

Backers include the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the British Heart Foundation and the Arthritis Research Campaign, with support from the Joint Information Systems Committee.

Those wishing to express an interest should do so by June 10 at www.wellcome.ac.uk/ukpmc