To cut a long story short, we’re retaining Web of Science.

For those of you interested in the longer story, the Library consulted on the cancellation of JCR and WoS with departments through Library Liaison Officers (LLOs), Library Committee, Research Committee, Academic Board and SMT in September 2016. The Library then informed all LLOs, Heads of Department and Faculty of the decision to cancel JCR and WoS.

This resulted in a series of concerns from new respondents who had missed all the previous communication, and/or provided more new information.  To check these concerns, a meeting was held in October with 20 academics.  This was a useful meeting, where the following ‘tipping factors’ were identified:

• The impact on academics and their postgraduate students who will need to re-train and will see the greatest impact on the way they work
• The closeness to the PBRF round and the need to make sure we keep high performing researchers
• The need to work with organisations such as MacDiarmid or Antarctic New Zealand who currently insist on using WoS to apply for contracts
• Possible reputational impact if the key stakeholders are not on board with the decision

So, as the point of the consultation was to consider and act on it, the Library deferred the decision to cancel WoS.  We now have three more years to allow more time to work through the issues raised, provide training and support to transition to other products and for PBRF to be completed.