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Despite millions of dollars being spent on research each year in Canada, little attention is paid to the dissemination of the results of research. There is a disconnect between Canadian public policies in this area; although a high priority is assigned to the generation of research, there is a lack of policies addressing its dissemination. Meanwhile, the environment in which research knowledge is being disseminated is undergoing a profound transformation because of several important drivers. In particular, these drivers include new technology, changing research patterns, new users, economics, and commercialization. The major objective of this study was to examine the rapidly transforming environment in which research knowledge is disseminated and determine whether there is a need for a national research strategy to adapt to the new, dynamic scholarly communication environment in Canada. To address the latter question, the study adopted a consensus panel process. A consensus panel of 10 Canadian academic researchers from across Canada from a variety of disciplines and at different stages of their careers was recruited from over 70 volunteers. The objective of the panel was to reach a consensus on priorities for research into scholarly communication in Canada. The consensus panel identified five major themes in which there is a need for research in scholarly communication in Canada: Knowledge systems; knowledge/data storage and retrieval; power and infrastructure within the academy; knowledge production and the social contract; copyright and intellectual property. These themes are expanded upon in more detail in the full paper and specific research topics discussed. The results of this study also clearly support the creation of a more holistic and integrated knowledge ecosystem for scholarly communication. In its report, the consensus panel strongly recommended that, "a coherent national policy of knowledge preservation and dissemination must he devised to create a greater cohesion, accessibility, security and access to research findings." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For European universities the year 2010 is crucial to their two main activities: teaching and research. Much has been said about the European Higher Education Area and about the innovative aspects of university teaching. However, we should also consider research, as the European Union governments have also set 2010 as the starting date for the European Research Area, whose aim will be to enhance research throughout the old continent and place it on a par with the current world leaders: the United States and Japan. Within the new frame work for higher education in Europe, university libraries have already shown that they can offer quality learning support services. European research is basically undertaken at universities. Institutions of higher education will have to be one of the driving forces behind the ambitious project to improve research policy, and university libraries will have to demonstrate that they are capable of offering first-class information services. This paper sets out the initiatives undertaken by UPC (Technical University of Catalonia) libraries in support of research. It is clear that cooperation between the academic and library communities is, and will continue to be, a key factor in meeting the challenges set. Although we concentrate on our own particular university, the research support services offered by the Library are evolving in much the same way as they are at most Spanish universities. These initiatives focus on the following aspects: access to quality scientific information, the dissemination of the Open Access movement, support for information management (the creation of specialist websites and the availability of reference management systems), the dissemination of the University's scientific output (heightened profile for the journals published by the University and for doctoral theses), advice regarding legal protection for the information generated by the scientific community (providing information relating to copyright and publishing issues) and also the dissemination of the results of the University' s research, as a means of providing the encouragement that the University wants to give its staff to publish more and in the best journals (the creation of an observatory of scientific publications). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]