ecancer is pleased to announce that it has now joined the Access to Research initiative, the new service which gives free, walk-in access to a wide range of academic articles and research in public libraries across the UK.

The service is being rolled out across the UK from January 2014 as part of a two year pilot - subjects include art, architecture, business, engineering, history, languages, politics, philosophy, mathematics and the sciences. All content provided is digital and can be accessed from designated library terminals, via a search delivery service called Summon.

Access to Research was launched in response to recommendations from the Finch Group, a committee convened by the UK government, to explore how access to publicly funded research could be expanded. One of the main recommendations of the Finch Group was that the major journal publishers should grant public libraries a licence to provide free access to their academic articles. The Access to Research two year pilot, starting January 2014, is the outcome of this recommendation.

ecancer is proud to support a project which will be of great use to students in further education, independent researchers and small businesses across the whole of the UK.