Scholarly Communication Toolkit

Using the Toolkit

This toolkit is designed to support advocacy efforts that work toward changing the scholarly communication system, and to provide information on scholarly communication issues for librarians, faculty, academic administrators, and other campus stakeholders. The toolkit aims to address these concerns in ways that meet the needs of the full range of academic institutions that make up the ACRL membership base. A primary goal of the toolkit is to summarize key issues and content to give readers quick, basic information on scholarly communication topics.

A second goal is to provide tools that will allow individuals to deepen their knowledge in particular areas, and to develop materials for use with their consitutiencies. The bibliography and webliography sections identify a few key items from among the wealth of information available. Powerpoint presentations, graphics, and other materials can be adapted for local use. This tools page is organized by first by type of tool, and within type by subject.

The tools page begins with a modest number of offerings and will grow as librarians and other campus professionals submit materials for consideration. Creators will retain copyright to all materials accepted. Materials will be accepted by this site if the creator agrees to allow others to copy, distribute, or modify materials for local use, for educational purposes, with attribution. See the Creative Commons Publish tool for more information about choosing a license. We suggest the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike-2.0 license. Submit materials for consideration, and suggestions for additional readings or web sites to the site administrator.

Web Sites

Author Control of Copyright

Copyright Resources for Authors is an excellent SPARC offering. This site includes information on their Author's Addendum which preserves rights for broader use of your works; and language you can use to modify publisher agreements if your research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and you wish to follow their public access policy.

The SHERPA web site summarizes permissions (by publisher) that are normally given as part of a publisher's copyright transfer agreement. These are publishers that typically want authors to transfer copyright, but the publisher automatically allows some rights to remain with the author. These are the default policies and changes or exceptions can often be negotiated by authors.

You and Your Copyrights: Securing, Managing, and Sharing the Legal Rights, Copyright Management Center, Indiana University, Purdue University at Indianapolis. This site provides more basic information on copyright, including a discussion of works-made-for-hire, those works that were created by an employee in the scope of his or her employment, and therefore belong to the employer.

Copyright Management for Scholarship: Key Issues & Good Practices: Agreements is a checklist of points to consider when entering into publishing agreements, created by the Zwolle Group, an international working group on copyright in academe.

Johns Hopkins provides a tool that offers Hopkins authors data on journals and publishers. Their goal is to help authors find publishers that support the free exchange of information through author-friendly policies, and are cost competitive.

CopyOwn is maintained by the University of Maryland. Many higher education institutions have intellectual proporty policies that allow faculty to own the copyright in works they produce during the course of employment. Some institutions opt to retain some rights under the work-for-hire law. This Web site and the underlying research is devoted to understanding the emerging conflicts over copyright ownership within the higher education community and seek to find appropriate solutions that everyone can live with. It includes links to policies for many AAU/ARL institutions. Authors should understand whether whether or not they own all rights to their works before negotiating with publishers.

Journal Pricing

Historical Price Data by Library Type
The chart, compiled by EBSCO Information Services, shows price fluctuations for 2000-2004 for typical library lists invoiced in U.S. dollars. It includes ARL libraries, college and university libraries, and academic libraries.

Sticker Shock
This site, both humorous and sobering, illustrates the extent of runaway journal prices. It was developed by librarians at Cornell's Engineering Library.

Open Access

Access to the Literature: The Debate Continues
The Nature web focus began in March 2004, with an introductory article by Declan Butler. Between March and September 2004, thirty-five commissioned articles discuss the pros and cons of open access from a variety of viewpoints. This was a lively forum, and the articles are well worth reading. All content is available free.

Open Access News
An open access blog (weblog), this is a good place to find current news and read opinions on the topic of open access. Updated daily, the blog is edited by Peter Suber.

Publisher Mergers and Acquisitions

Information Access Alliance
A coalition of seven library associations that argues for a more consumer-friendly definition of the STM journals and legal serials markets. The site contains links to a number of studies and background documents.

The Academic Publishing Industry: A Story of Merger and Acquisition
This site profiles twelve large European and North American publishers. The timelines are the most interesting feature, tracking the firms' struggles to find a steady, but profitable niche for their publication efforts. The mergers and acquisitions as well as the sales strategies are clearly attempts to find niche markets for the publishing activities of the companies. Created by Mary H. Munroe, Associate Dean for Collections & Technical Services, Northern Illinois University Library.

Taking Action

Peter Suber has compiled and summarized a list of college and university actions against high journal prices. The list includes many links to policy statements. Suber's site also contains a list of actions to further the cause of open access.

BioMed Central has compiled a list of foundations willing to allow the use of grant funds for processing fees charged by open access journals.

Readings

Scholarly Communication in General

Suzanne E. Thorin, "Global Changes in Scholarly Communication" Presented at e-Workshops on Scholarly Communication in the Digital Era, August 11-24, 2003 at Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan. 23 pp.
In addition to general background information, this paper documents other changes which are destabilizing longstanding traditions and early efforts to address high prices of commercial journal publishers. Thorin also discusses disciplinary differences in scholarly communication and the resulting need for multiple responses. An excellent overview paper.

Jean-Claude Guedon, "In Oldenburg's Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing" Washington, DC: The Association of Research Libraries, (2002): 70pp.
Jean-Claude Guedon, historian of science and professor of comparative literature at the Universite de Montreal, has written a definitive and elegant explanation of "how we got to where we are today."

Alternatives in Scholarly Publishing

Richard C. Atkinson, "A New World of Scholarly Communication" Chronicle of Higher Education 50, no11, (Nov. 7, 2003): B16
Atkinson, recently retired president of the University of California, wrote this article for Chronicle. The link is to a freely available copy on the UCLA site. The article is directed at higher education leaders and urges them to consider a number of different strategies for moving into a very different world of scholarly communication.

Author Control of Copyright

Mark S. Frankel, Seizing the Moment: Scientists' Authorship Rights in the Digital Age, American Association for the Advancement of Science, (2002): 32pp.
An excellent summary of the issues related to authorship rights, this report notes in the introduction that "one of the features of scientific information is that it increases in value as more people have access to it and add new insights into its interpretation." Noteworthy is the table of core values animating scientific scholarly publishing. This report calls for authors to use their leverage to negotiate licensing agreements that maximize access to and dissemination of their work.

Bundling / Aggregating / Big Deal Subscriptions

Carl T. Berstrom and Theodore C. Bergstrom, "The Economics of Scholarly Journal Publishing" 2002; updated May 2006. See also the table "Journal Pricing Across Disciplines".

Mary M. Case, "Trends and Issues" in Implications of Aggregate Subscriptions to Electronic Journals, EBSCO Information Services, Vantage Point Series, no.55 (Jan/Feb/March 2001):3-5.

Mary M. Case "A Snapshot in Time: ARL Libraries and Electronic Journal Resources" ARL no.235 (August 2004):1-10.

Aaron S. Edlin & Daniel Rubenfeld, "Exclusion or Efficient Pricing? The 'Big Deal' Bundling of Academic Journals" ABA: Antitrust Law Journal 72, no.1 (2004):119-157.

Kenneth Frazier, "The Librarians' Dilemma: Contemplating the Costs of the 'Big Deal'" D-Lib Magazine 7, no.1 (March 2001).

Institutional Repositories

Lynch, Clifford A. "Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age" ARL, no.226 (February 2003):1-7.

Mark Ware, "Institutional Repositories and Scholarly Publishing" Learned Publishing 17 (2004):115-124.
This article provides good information on the background and recent developments with institutional repositories and explores the impact that repositories may have on scholarly communication.

Open Access

Kristin Antelman, "Do Open-Access Articles Have a Greater Research Impact?" College and Research Libraries 65, no.5 (September 2004):372-382.
Antelman's study examined articles in four disciplines at differing stages of adopting open access. She used citations in the ISI Web of Science database to measure the impact of articles made freely available. The finding is that freely available articles did have greater research impact, and this held true across the four disciplines studied.

Peter Suber, "Removing Barriers to Research: An Introduction to Open Access for Librarians" C&RL News 62, no.2, (February 2003):92-94,113.
A good, concise overview of open access and attendant issues. Suber is a research professor at Earlham and his current work focuses on advocacy for open access to scientific and scholarly literature. He is a frequent speaker and writer on this topic.

Publisher Mergers and Acquisitions

Mary M. Case, "Information Access Alliance: Challenging Anticompetitive Behavior in Academic Publishing" C&RL News 65, no.6 (June 2004):310-313, 326.

Elisa Eiseman, Kei Koizumi, and Donna Fossum, "Federal Investment in R&D", Rand Science and Technology Policy Institute, Project Memorandum PM-1336-OSTP, Arlington, VA, (July 2002):15.

Albert A. Foer. President, "Can Antitrust Save Academic Publishing?" Paper presented at the American Library Association Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, June 28, 2004; revised July 20, 2004. 25pp.
Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute, presents an excellent overview of the effects of publisher mergers and acquisitions on the cost of scholarly journals.

Mark J. McCabe, "The Impact of Publisher Mergers on Journal Prices: An Update", ARL, no. 207, (December 1999).

Mark J. McCabe, "Journal Pricing and Mergers: A Portfolio Approach," The American Economic Review 92, no.1, (March 2002):265-67.

Mark J. McCabe Law Serials Pricing and Mergers: A Portfolio Approach Contributions to Economic Analysis & Policy, 3, no.1, article 11, (2004): 29pp.

Michael A. Stoller, Robert Christopherson, and Michael Miranda, "The Economics of Professional Journal Pricing," College & Research Libraries, 57(January 1996):7-21.

Thomas M. Susman & David J. Carter. "Publisher Mergers: A Consumer-Based Approach to Antitrust Analysis" Washington, D.C., Information Access Alliance, (2003) 33pp.
A white paper commissioned by the Information Access Alliance, this publication outlines the issues very clearly and is easily understood by those of us without backgrounds in law or economics. Section 2: "Access to a Broad Spectrum of Research Information is Essential" contains many examples of how wide dissemination of research results leads to scientific innovation, medical advances, improvements in public health, and the sustenance of our legal system. These examples help advocates constuct powerful and compelling stories.

Carol Tenopir and Donald W. King, "Toward Electronic Serials", Special Libraries Association, Washington, D.C. 2000, p. 159-75; and Education for Change Ltd., SIRU, University of Brighton, and The Research Partnership, "Researchers Use of Libraries and other Information Sources: Current Patterns and Future Trends," Higher Education Funding Council for English, 2003, p. 20-21.

PowerPoint Presentations

Scholarly Communication General

The State of Scholarly Communications: An Environmental Scan of Emerging Issues, Pitfalls, and Possibilities. Lee Van Orsdel
From a NASIG annual conference program, Denver, Colorado, May 2006. An overview of the issues that are swirling around in the scholarly communications environment, including the evolving arenas of public policy, faculty advocacy, and open access agendas.

Trends in Scholarly Communication. Richard Fyffe
Good overview of current trends and issues in scholarly communication. Covers Tempe Principles, academic archiving and open access, and the ARL Scholar's Portal project.

Advocacy

Scholarly Communication: Legislative and Political Advocacy. James G. Neal
From the ACRL preconference Scholarly Communication 101 An Introduction to Scholarly Communication Issues and Strategies for Change , Orlando, Florida, June 2004. Covers the issues, forums, tools, political dynamics, alliances, and librarian role in advocacy.

Change Strategies

Scholarly Communication: Strategies for Change. James G. Neal
From the ACRL preconference Scholarly Communication 101 An Introduction to Scholarly Communication Issues and Strategies for Change , Orlando, Florida, June 2004. Covers different conceptions of change, higher education core interests, and specific change efforts.

Copyright

Copyright, Licensing, and Information Policy: Mine, Mine, and Well, Mine! Dwayne Buttler
From the ACRL preconference Scholarly Communication 101 An Introduction to Scholarly Communication Issues and Strategies for Change , Orlando, Florida, June 2004. Covers copyright and licensing basics, institutional policies, and recent legislative initiatives.

Copyright or Copyleft: Who Owns Our Thoughts? Karen Williams
Originally created in 2000 for a Faculty Fellows program at the University of Arizona, this slide show incorporate a pop-quiz feature for audience participation. Basic information on copyright and intellectual property. Slides on topics that were recent events in 2000 could be left for historical context, updated, or removed.

Copyright, Intellectual Property and Scholarly Communication. Karen Williams
An expanded version of the presentation above, created in 2002 for a library school class. Includes information on the history of copyright, unbundling rights, and the crisis in scholarly communication.

Journal Pricing

Anatomy of a Crisis: Dysfunction in the Scholarly Communications System. Lee Van Orsdel
From the ACRL preconference Scholarly Communication 101 An Introduction to Scholarly Communication Issues and Strategies for Change , Orlando, Florida, June 2004. Covers journal pricing crisis and depicts differences in how academic and commercial publishers view the current mode of scholarly communication. Great use of graphics.

Open Access. Karen Williams
From the ACRL preconference Scholarly Communication 101 An Introduction to Scholarly Communication Issues and Strategies for Change , Orlando, Florida, June 2004. Overview of open access definition with basic information on open access journal publishing and institutional repositories.

Publisher Mergers & Acquisitions / Competitive Market

Fostering a Competitive Market. Ray English
From the ACRL preconference Scholarly Communication 101 An Introduction to Scholarly Communication Issues and Strategies for Change , Orlando, Florida, June 2004. Covers current anti-merger, anti-trust activities, editorial board control and new competitive journals.

Brochures and Handouts

Scholarly Communication in General

Create Change
As part of the campaign to create change in scholarly communication, SPARC, ARL, and ACRL have developed brochures suitable for library outreach to scientists and scholars. The brochures support scholarly communication programs, such as campus mailings and meetings with academic departments. Revised in October 2003, the Create Change brochure is a general look at scholarly publishing challenges and options for faculty action.

Open Access

The Open Access brochure, also from SPARC, ARL and ACRL, presents a specific approach to change, by describing the benefits of open access to authors, readers, teachers, scholars, and scientists. Facts and figures demonstrate how open access to scholarly research capitalizes on Internet connectivity to increase a research article's use and impact. The brochure suggests steps authors of journal articles can take to provide open access to their work.