FDBusiness.com

Teagasc, the Irish agriculture and food development authority, has launched its newly developed Open Access repository, which makes Teagasc research papers freely available online.

In the context of scientific research dissemination, ‘Open Access’ refers to the free availability on the public Internet of scholarly articles published in an electronic format, permitting any user to read and re-use the content, provided only that the author is properly acknowledged and cited.

Teagasc is currently in the process of populating the repository, with almost 300 papers already available online. As papers are published, they will be placed in the repository, so that eventually it will provide a picture of Teagasc research from 2012 forwards. It is also hoped to add historical content over time.

“For many years, the main method of dissemination of scientific results has been through publication of articles in scientific journals. It was only possible to read the published journal articles if you paid a subscription to the journal,” explains Maire Caffrey, Teagasc’s head librarian.

“Supporters of Open Access believe that if research articles were freely accessible, the usage, impact, productivity and progress of research would be maximised. There has also been a rise in support for the idea that results of publicly-funded research should be freely available, in order to maximise its impact and value for money,” she adds.

Stór is the Gaelic word for Repository, Store or Warehouse, and T-Stór is an online ‘store’ of Teagasc research outputs and related documents. The repository is freely available to the general public at: http://t-stor.teagasc.ie/.

CAPTION:

At the launch of T-stór (Teagasc’s Open Access repository) are Maire Caffrey, head librarian at Teagasc; Dr Frank O’Mara, director of research, Teagasc (standing, left) and Huk Mok, ICT Department, Teagasc.