The world of scholarly information is in flux. The recent "serials crisis" was one manifestation and should not be seen as a "library problem" but an issue influenced by all the players - academic scholars, publishers and libraries.
Libraries are moving to electronic resources, consortia are mobilising to gain value for money, publishers are doing deals, scholarly societies are taking back their own journals and academics are valuing their intellectual property. Read On!
Follow these links to information which will illustrate some of the developments currently taking place in a constantly evolving information environment.
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Scholarly Reviews Through the Web
A New York Times article discussing how web-based peer-review programs are reducing turnaround time, postage bills and workload at many scholarly journals. (Added August 2002)
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The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper
A white paper examining the strategic roles institutional repositories serve for colleges and universities. SPARC intends this paper to facilitate a practical discussion among faculty as principal contributors and stakeholders in the scholarly communication process, librarians as implementers, and provosts and deans as vital administration proponents (added August 2002)
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New International Scholarly Communications Alliance [PDF file]
Eight of the world's principal research library organizations announced the establishment of the International Scholarly Communications Alliance (ISCA). ISCA will engage in activities that focus the scholarly publishing process on the goals of advancing the discovery of new knowledge and facilitating its dissemination. (Added February 2002)
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Free Online Science Journals to Charge Authors a 'Processing Fee'
BioMed Central, an online publisher that offers its science journals free on the Internet announced that it would ask authors to pay a $500 fee to have their articles pubished. (Added February 2002)
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Future e-access to the primary literature from Nature's web forum
Impact of the web on the publishing of the results of original research and implications for the future dissemination of scientific information. (Added September 2001)
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Public Library of Science letter to Science Magazine
Response from Science Magazine editors
The debate about a free online repository of primary scientific literature. Links to readers' responses in the published debates (dEbates) available at the end of the articles. (Added September 2001)
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Knowledge Indignation: Road Rage on the Information Superhighway
A Radio National Background Briefing on scholarly publishing and the revolt of some scientists against large publishing companies. (Added August 2001)
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The Public Library of Science
Should the record of scientific research be privately owned and controlled? Join the protest! (Added August 2001)
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Free Journal Access offered to the Developing World
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the world's six biggest medical publishers announce a new initiative to enable developing countries to access scientific journal information free or at greatly reduced rates.
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The Capacity of Public Universities to Meet Australia's Higher Education Needs [PDF file]
The paper outlines how funding constraints placed on universities have significantly affected the ability of Australian university libraries to meet the needs of researchers. The paper is a response from the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) to the inquiry of the Senate Employment, Workplace Relations, Small Business and Education Reference Committee. (Added July 2001)
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The self-archiving initiative: Freeing the refereed research literature online
Stevan Harnad's explanation of his proposal to publish all research freely on the Web. (Added January 2001)
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Stevan Harnad - E-Prints on Interactive Publication
A new model of scholarly communication for a new era. Harnad maintains that academics working in the esoteric fields of scientific and scholarly research journal publication do not produce their written work with a view to selling it; they merely wish to have it read and used by their peers. This being the case, Harnad makes the 'subversive proposal' that such scholars, in addition to submitting their work to journals for peer review and publication, should self-archive it publicly on the Web -- both the preprint and the peer-reviewed, published final draft. (Added September 2000)
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The Economics of Scholarly Communication
An Australian study by the Center for Strategic Economic Studies at Victoria University. (Added September 2000)
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Library and Information Infrastructure: International Strategic Initiatives: a discussion paper
Discusses a range of major overseas initiatives to support national information content access for the higher education research portfolio. (Added September 2000)
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Principles for Emerging Systems of Scholarly Publishing
Results of a conference in Arizona to build concensus on a set of principles that could guide the transformation of the scholarly publishing system. (Added September 2000)
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Australia's Information Future: Innovation and Knowledge Management for the 21st Century
Papers from a DETYA EIP Workshop conducted in December 1999. Contains an excellent overview of issues and ways forward for scholarly information and research in Australia. Includes strategic directions for Australian libraries, a summary of initiatives in the UK and USA, and outlines of current research needs in the social sciences, sciences and humanities.
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Electronic Genesis: E-Journals in the Sciences
The high price of commercial journals threatens scientific communications. A coalition of universities, libraries, and learned societies called SPARC is using electronic publishing to reverse that trend. (Added March 2000)
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LibraryResources No.5 for Australian Scientists
A press release from the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies lists the top ten issues for Australian science in 2000. Libraries and access to information resources come in at No. 5. (Added March 2000)
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Full Text Electronic Journals : Quo Vadis?
An overview from the University of Melbourne on the directions for full text electronic journals. (Added March 2000)
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A Strategic Framework for Australia's Research Enterprise
This consultative paper resulted from a growing concern within the Australian research community over the nation's capacity to sustain cost effective and timely access to the global network of information and knowledge. (Added March 2000)
