Terms of Reference

1. The Electronic Publishing Innovation Centre (EPICentre) is a joint research group of the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University and the Kings Norton Library at Cranfield University. The group has a Convenor who is a permanent member of the staff of one of the two departments. Membership is open to all members of staff and research students in either University (including interested parties in other departments in these two Universities) with a research interest in electronic publishing.
2. The activities of EPICentre will include the following
   • The encouragement of joint or collaborative research between different members of the group
   • Publication of research articles and presentations at conferences based on collaborative research work undertaken within EPICentre
   • The operation of a private e-mail discussion list for members
   • The operation of a website
   • The holding of regular meetings to be held either at Loughborough or at Cranfield
   • The preparation of brochures, articles, conference presentations or other publicity materials to inform others of EPICentre's activities
3. The subject field to be covered by the group will be electronic publishing in the broadest sense, with an emphasis on scholarly and academic publishing but not excluding other types of publishing. Electronic publishing is defined as the use of electronic networks for the creation, structuring, retrieval and dissemination of organised bodies of information that are intended for use beyond a closed group of users. Web, online and CD-ROM publishing will be covered, as will electronic methods of administration and pre-press leading primarily to printed publications.
4. Aspects of the field to be covered will include technical, social, psychological, economic, legal and business approaches to the study of electronic publishing.
5. Members of the group might conduct research activities and publish their findings with or without external financial support. However, it is expected that financial support will be sought in many cases from the European Union, UK government departments, Research Councils, foundations and other not-for-profit bodies, companies operating in the publishing, media and information industries, and internal sources within the two Universities themselves. Work may also be conducted by research-student members of the group as their thesis research. Work may also be undertaken on a consultancy basis.
6. A major part of the activity of EPICentre will be the pooling of expertise and of information about possible funding sources, leading to the formation of synergistic ad-hoc groups of EPICentre members from one or both Universities who are well equipped to bid for resources that become available. To that end members will disseminate appropriate information that they discover to the group through the e-mail discussion list. Such groups will use the name of EPICentre when publishing their work. There will, however, be no obligation on members to conduct all of their electronic-publishing research through EPICentre, as it is recognised that there might be occasions when the two institutions are in competition for particular resources. Either institution may conduct and publish research work on electronic publishing without channelling the work through EPICentre if it sees fit.
7. If a group of EPICentre members all of whom are members of the same University seeks research funding then the funding will all be payable to that institution. If a group with members from both institutions seeks funding, the Head of the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University and the University Librarian at Cranfield University will agree on the terms of the division of the funding between the two institutions before submission of the bid.