JISC cash fuels philosophy for Stanford

Funding from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) will keep the Stanford Enclyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) online as an Open Access resource to universities in the UK. Initial funding for SEP ended in July 2005 and Stanford University has been asking the academic library community to contribute to keeping SEP Open Access.

SEP is an electronic encyclopedia, which can be constantly updated, unlike print publications. In the 10 years since launch, SEP has become a
leading resource for academic users.

Stanford University is unwilling to approach a commercial publisher to manage SEP, believing they will drive-up the cost of maintaining the encyclopedia. SEP relies on voluntary editors and writers to update entries.

“When we carried out some community consultation, we found that UK institutions were very enthusiastic about SEP as a point of reference,” said Caren Milloy, JISC collections managers, “and that 10% of usage and 10% of the authors to SEP were from the UK.”