Executive Summary

The transformation of the scholarly communication medium from print to digital has created enormous change in the world of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) information. Now well established as the norm, the digital environment offers great potential for advancing research and innovation. New ways to aggregate, analyse, deliver, and use information will lead to exciting new scientific discoveries.

The impacts of the digital medium have been profound. In addition to speeding and facilitating the peer review and publication processes, digital publishing has provided the tools that are turning scholarly publishing upside down. Increasingly scholarly communities are devising their own mechanisms to exchange research results, experimenting with personal publishing on the web and open peer review, for example.

The future will see new ways to communicate science, including data and information integration, multimedia, and reference linking embedded in digital objects. STM publishers, including NRC-CISTI's publishing program, the NRC Research Press, are investing in technology and expertise to integrate these new options into their publications. Likewise libraries are challenged to remain current with the latest technology to ensure that their clients are able to exploit these advances. Other challenges for libraries include organizing and managing digital STM information and assuring universal, permanent access to print and digital resources.

The promise of technology has also opened the door to providing wider, less costly access to STM information. In reaction to the high costs of scientific journals published by commercial publishers, the Open Access movement calls for the results of publicly funded research to be available free to users. While an economically feasible model for Open Access has not yet been defined, there are many experimental initiatives in place. How this will be resolved is a fundamental question for today's STM publishers and libraries.

Organizations like NRC-CISTI hold the keys to unlocking the power of digital STM information. NRC-CISTI has already established itself as a world leader in this area, providing secure desktop document delivery directly to clients and free electronic access to the NRC Research Press journals for Canadians. New NRC-CISTI services, including competitive technical intelligence and patent information analysis, exploit the ability to search and organize electronically large amounts of information.

The NRC-CISTI Strategic Plan 2005 – 2010 presents the path that NRC-CISTI must take to ensure that the opportunities of the digital STM information environment are exploited to serve Canadians. With the full implementation of this Plan, the infrastructure and expertise will be in place for Canadians to derive value from STM information to fuel their research, innovation and commercialization activities. The window of opportunity is open now to establish this essential infrastructure that will position Canadians to move forward and take advantage of the opportunities that will arise in the digital STM information environment.

The NRC-CISTI vision and mission are

VISION: A leader in driving the exploitation of scientific information to create value for Canadians

MISSION: To advance research and innovation through high-value information and publishing services in science, technology, and medicine

The NRC-CISTI Strategic Plan 2005 – 2010 is based on the input of 180 stakeholders, including NRC-CISTI staff. At nine consultation sessions held across the country, stakeholders voiced remarkably similar visions of the future for STM information. Their views are reflected in NRC-CISTI's Strategic Goals:

Goal 1: Provide universal, seamless, and permanent access to information for Canadian research and innovation

Goal 2: Enable researchers and entrepreneurs to advance and exploit knowledge through accelerated, innovative scientific communication

Goal 3: Lead STM information communities across Canada to become a national force for innovation

Goal 4: Grow as an enabling organization

NRC-CISTI's stakeholders want to see the benefits of Canada's investment in STM information infrastructure and resources maximized through cooperation, coordination, and partnership among the key organizations in the government, academic, health, and industrial sectors. They see NRC-CISTI as having the expertise, infrastructure, and national role needed to lead this effort and have challenged NRC-CISTI to make it happen.

This integrated, partnership-based approach to STM information will result in a Canadian science "infostructure" and a viable national STM publishing infrastructure. The competitive advantages offered by this investment will lead to better research and a more innovative economy. The NRC-CISTI Strategic Plan 2005 – 2010 provides the blueprint of the actions that NRC-CISTI will undertake to make this vision a reality.