Scholarly Communication and Publishing Issues
Is there a ‘crisis’ in scholarly communications as widely reported
in the last few years? Decide for yourself. There are certainly some trends that
dramatically affect research, university budgets, and the scholarly mission. That
is, these trends affect you, whatever your discipline or position in academia.
Stanford’s Science and Engineering Libraries have cut many subscriptions because prices are increasing
so rapidly. Devaluation of the dollar and older content being resold in a digital format has further
eroded our buying power.
Publishing scholarly communications is an international, multi-billion dollar business.
Mergers in the publishing industry have reduced competition. While e-journals have the potential to be
less expensive than print copies, some publishers have adopted pricing models that protect revenue
streams, regardless of what format is purchased. There are also a number of issues affecting long-term
access to digital resources that need to be addressed. For example, should Stanford locally archive
e-journals or rely on publishers to provide long-term access?
We invite members of the Stanford community to consider supporting publications produced by
non-profit professional societies and institutional repositories which are viable alternatives
to the for-profit journals. We also suggest that Stanford authors negotiate with journal
publishers to retain certain copyrights.
This website was created to help users learn more about these critical issues and to develop
strategies for addressing them.
Highlights what has been happening at Stanford to address issues in scholarly
publishing. Shows profile of expensive journals in the Stanford University Libraries. Shares
strategies and invites support and advice in aligning library resources with programmatic needs.
Encourages authors, editors, readers, and administrators to provide leadership in
thinking about scholarly publishing so that it is economically sustainable. Offers
recommendations to authors about retaining selected rights or copyright ownership of scholarly
output. Provides information to help authors, editors, and referees choose which journals to support.
Covers trends as well as publishing models and initiatives. Increases awareness about needs related
to infrastructure and long-term access of digital content.
Provides links to selected institutions and organizations involved in scholarly communication and
publishing issues.