NIHR Journals Library project background

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Journals Library is currently being developed and managed by a publications project team based at the NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC) at the University of Southampton. NETSCC is home to evaluation research programmes and is part of the NIHR.

Professor Dame Sally Davies (Chief Medical Officer for England; Director-General for Research and Development, and Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health) approached NETSCC to explore the possibility of an NIHR series of research outputs based on the existing, highly regarded, Health Technology Assessment journal. The aim of the project is to realise that vision and provide an important permanent record of the work funded by the participating programmes.

Participating programmes are:

Managed by NETSCC
Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) programme
NIHR Health Services Research (HSR) programme
NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme
NIHR Public Health Research (PHR) programme
NIHR Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO) programme

Managed by CCF
NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) programme

Managed by MRC
Methodology Research Programme (MRP) – selected reports published in the most relevant journal managed by NETSCC

Each programme will have its own journal available via a dedicated NIHR Journals Library website. This will mean the establishment of a new website to host the publications and provide searching facilities. In addition, the journals will be individually indexed on Medline or other bibliographic databases and will be available through UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) and NHS Evidence (this will depend on securing the appropriate recognition of their suitability for inclusion).

The project will be informed by advice from stakeholders ranging from the Department of Health, the participating programmes, funded researchers, editors and external reviewers, users of existing programme websites and members of the public.

NETSCC plans to launch the new website in Autumn 2012. In the period leading up to the launch we will be working with the authors of the first reports to be published in the new journals as well as developing the ‘look and feel’ and structure of the journals.

If you are interested in what differentiates NIHR journal issues from conventional journal articles, and what the benefits are, you can find out by reading 'the case for the NIHR Journals Library full reports'.