The development of a national policy for dataset provision in the UK: a historical perspective

This article records some of the issues surrounding the development of a policy for central funding of dataset provision in the UK academic and research community. It describes the work of the Information Systems Committee's Datasets Working Group and its predecessor the Computer Board's National Task Group on Datasets, and how their recommendations have been taken forward by the Information Systems Sub-C.ommittee (ISSC) of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils (HEFCs), which now has responsibility for implementing and developing the p:>licy. It also reviews implications for institutional service provision, and sketches potential service outcomes of the policy.