Scholarly Communication Toolkit

Scholarly Communication: A simple powerful premise

New knowledge builds on old and, today, is increasingly shaped by participation in a community of scholars. A vital part of this process is the broadest possible sharing of academic publications among scholars and students worldwide. Sharing is so important to the academic process that faculty routinely contribute articles to scholarly journals and serve as peer reviewers and editors - all without monetary compensation.

A system at risk

Libraries and their institutions worldwide can no longer keep up with the increasing volume and cost of scholarly resources. Journal price increases of more than 215% over the last 15 years have forced libraries not only to cancel journal subscriptions but to purchase fewer monographs as well. Fewer specialized monographs are being published, and university presses are threatened with closure.

Access is lost

Membership in the community of scholars is being defined by which institutions can afford to purchase or license access to scholarly journals in their fields. Scholars at some institutions give their articles away to journals that their libraries cannot afford. Young humanities faculty may have trouble publishing monographs. Readers only have access to a fraction of the relevant literature, potentially missing vital papers in their fields.

It’s time for change

The traditional system of scholarly communication is no longer working. Electronic publishing, innovative business models, and the intervention of scholars and societies offer new opportunities for sharing scholarly information. The higher education community must act. Together we can develop a new system that meets the needs of present and future scholars and students.

About 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. The bibliography and webliography sections identify a few key items from among the wealth of information available. Graphics, powerpoint presentations, and other tools can be adapted for local use. The Action lists suggest ways in which, working together, we can affect change.