Mission
The mission of FORCE11 is to improve research practices by supporting innovations in the ways knowledge is created and shared across research disciplines, communities, sectors and timeframes. We do this through:
- Connecting the global communities interested in communications in research
- Building an engaging space for discussion and collaborative work
- Facilitating the development, demonstration, dissemination and deployment of new approaches and tools for effective digital communications in research.
Guiding Principles
Focused on the Future of Research Communication
FORCE11 provides a common ground for those interested in the future of research communication. Its members are interested in how research communication is currently practiced and how digital networked technologies can improve such communication (and hence the practice and effectiveness of science and scholarship) in the future.
Drawn from Across Disciplines and Sectors
Members of FORCE11 include commercial and non-profit publishers, libraries, scholarly societies, universities, other private and public sector organizations, and individual researchers, librarians, publishing professionals, corporate and public sector managers. The membership of FORCE11 is not restricted to any one discipline or groups of disciplines. It includes experts from the Natural Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Professional disciplines. FORCE11 members think that the future of Research Communication is a Multidisciplinary and Multi-sector endeavor.
Dedicated to Mobilization and Harmonization
The membership of FORCE11 approach research communication with different interests, concerns, and levels of participation. Often these interests are complementary. Sometimes they may be competing. For this reason, FORCE11 does not itself certify or endorse external initiatives. It is not an advocacy organization, but rather an organization for the mobilization and harmonization of community initiatives. It acts by convening communities of interest from within its membership but does not presume to speak for its members.
Transparent and Collaborative
The community that FORCE11 works with is heavily dependent on grants from government and other agencies. Although FORCE11 also looks for funding from these agencies, it avoids as much as possible competing directly with its members. It does this through the choice of programs to which it applies, by working directly with funding agencies, and, wherever possible, through partnerships and other mechanisms for ensuring that the funds it receives are requested on the communities behalf and dedicated to good of its membership and the community it serves.
