Changes in Scholarly Publishing: Some Resources

The following resources are recommended for those interested in learning more about attempts to restructuring the system of scholarly publishing to better suit the needs of authors and readers of this literature, especially journals:

• Guide to Open Access Publishing and Scholarly Societies – This guide “is meant to help scholarly societies - and small publishers - assess the options available to them for the future of their journal publishing programmes. Though the option of keeping the status quo of subscription-based journals is discussed, the focus is on conversion of existing journals to open access, either in one go, or via an intermediate managed transition phase.”
• SPARC Consulting Group – SPARC is an alliance of research libraries developed by ARL. “The SPARC Consulting Group provides business, financial, and strategic consulting services to universities and university presses, learned societies, and other academic and non-profit organizations. It supports the development, launch and operation of scholarly communications projects by helping make them more competitive, financially self-sufficient, and better equipped to serve scholars and the marketplace.”
• Open Access Journal Business Guides – The Budapest Open Access Initiative has assembled resources to help journals come up with business plans, both for launching new open-access journals and for converting existing subscription journals to open access.
• The Online Guide to Open Access Journal Publishing – The Directory of Open Access Journals has produced this guide to help those creating and launching open-access journals.
• Research Library Publishing Services: New Options for University Publishing – In late 2007 ARL surveyed member libraries and found that 65% were already offering publishing services or planning to do so. The report discusses the various models used.
• Calls to action for institutions:
  • University Publishing In A Digital Age – a report by Ithaka S+R
  • The University’s Role in the Dissemination of Research and Scholarship — A Call to Action – a joint publication of AAU, ARL, CNI, and NASULGC
• The effect of open access and downloads ('hits') on citation impact: a bibliography of studies