NORA: An Open Window to British Antarctic Research

As part of the open access publishing movement, Research Councils UK has mandated that the outputs of all Research Council funded research must be deposited in an institutional or subject-based repository. In response, UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has set up the NERC Open Research Archive (NORA), which aims to become a comprehensive source of NERC funded research outputs. This paper will outline how institutional repositories can help the drive towards open access publishing. It will consider the imperative for NORA and also examine some of the user and organisational benefits, including increased visibility, availability and impact of research outputs. It will outline how stakeholders were engaged in the development and implementation process, both at a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and at a NERC level. Delivery of the advocacy programme and the self-deposit model for populating NORA will also be discussed.