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ACRL Scholarly Communications Research Agenda

approved by the ACRL Board of Directors, June 29, 2004

The ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee proposes the following research agenda on scholarly communications issues. Several of these topics, if successfully researched, would document the effect of scholarly communications issues all types of academic libraries.

The committee recommends that this agenda be publicized broadly to the ACRL membership to encourage individual research on these topics, especially by librarians taking sabbatical leaves.

List of desired research topics:

• Monograph purchasing levels in recent years across all types of academic libraries.
• Print subscription levels in recent years across all types of academic libraries
• Levels of electronic journal access at all types of academic libraries.
• The extent to which academic libraries of various types are moving towards e-journal-only access.
• A faculty research profile by type of institution – particularly non-ARL institutions.
• Changes in institutional promotion and tenure structure that encourage or reward publishing in alternative channels.
• Information on the extent to which academic libraries are cataloging open access journals.
• Usage patterns of open access journals, including geographic origin of readers.
• The impact of open access journals relative to subscription-based journals, measured in article citations and other factors, and building on existing studies.
• Quantifying the cost that libraries are paying for alternative means of access to the literature to support teaching and research, such as document delivery and costs paid to the Copyright Clearance Center.