An Overview of Scholarly Communication Issues and Options

Scholarly communication is of increasing interest to academic librarians, faculty, and university administrators because it is where pricing and budgetary pressures, access to the scholarly record, changes to copyright law, and the growth of technology-based alternatives such as e-journals and digital repositories all converge.

This briefing provides background information and links to additional resources for selected facets of this complex picture.

1. The Economics of Scholarly Communication
The underlying economic structure of the scholarly communication system has undergone substantial change in recent years, with wide-ranging negative impact across all academic disciplines. Fundamentals include:

• The Journal Pricing Spiral. Prices have increased an average of 8-10% yearly for 15 years, far outstripping libraries' ability to pay. As a result, libraries are subscribing to many fewer journals titles. The decrease in subscriptions has resulted in publishers charging even higher prices to their remaining customers to maintain their revenue.
• Nationally
• Monograph and Serial Costs in ARL Libraries, 1986-2002
• Publisher Consolidation. A few major publishers have become "megapublishers" by acquiring smaller publishers, creating less competition and using this increased control to increase their profits.
• Challenges of the Online Environment. These large publishers have the resources to fill increasing user demand for online access to journal literature, and market their journals to libraries in "bundles." These bundles or packages and their associated restrictive cancellation policies can inhibit libraries' abilities to select the journals most needed and cancel those that are less needed. In addition, libraries may have to balance their budgets by canceling journals from less powerful publishers, or from scholarly societies that may charge far less for their journals but lack the technological resources to compete.
• Pressures on the Scholarly Monograph. Largely because libraries can't afford to buy as many scholarly monographs, fewer titles are now published, and publishing runs have decreased. When once a scholarly monograph might have had a print run of 1000 copies or more, runs that are 25-50% smaller are now the norm. University presses have been particularly hard hit, with print runs of 400-500 copies not uncommon. As a consequence, authors are struggling to find publication venues for their scholarship, and published titles are less readily available.

2. The Tenure System and Scholarly Communication

• Rewards in academe are often based on recognition for scholarly publication. Younger faculty have a special challenge here, since they need to publish in recognized journals. Prestigious journals may be owned by large corporations, which charge tend to charge higher prices than scholarly societies do.
• Typically publishers have exclusive rights to publish individual journal titles and their contents. Publishers require authors to turn over their copyright for the privilege of publishing in a particular journal, although some authors have been able to retain copyright or the rights to use their own material for certain applications. Publishers can control the market by holding copyright and placing restrictions on use.
• Publishing in journals owned by high-profit megapublishers helps perpetuate a system of high prices, restrictive access and undesirable licensing terms.

3. Legal Issues and Concerns

• Retention of copyright. In most cases, faculty can retain copyright on their scholarly works and may request this right in signing agreements with publishers. Some publishers may resist this request.
• Institutional need. Institutions have a stake in the retention of copyright within academia.
• Legislation. Recent changes in copyright law bring with them especially disruptive effects. Most recently, the Supreme Court has upheld the extension of copyright duration which by postponing the enlargement of material in the public domain brings with it certain restrictions in use. This extension of copyright was driven by commercial interests who are motivated by their desire to retain rights to long-standing, highly recognizable corporate symbols and money makers such as Mickey Mouse.
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Extends this commercial interest into the burgeoning field of digital communications.
• Licensing. To gain electronic access to journals and databases, libraries must increasingly negotiate and sign licenses, but licensed access is not the same as purchased ownership. Vendors attempt to control the use of the licensed information which can result in restrictions on use that would normally be permitted under the copyright statute's provisions for educational use. Licensing practices also hold the potential of complicating efforts to preserve digital resources.
• UCITA. If enacted, would restrict many behaviors scholars and teachers have long considered fair use.

4. Actions and Alternatives (mix of possible actions and those taken by the Libraries, etc.)

• Resistance to corporate control (editorial board resignations, refusal to review, support for scholarly society journals, support for open access journals, canceling high-priced journals, etc.)
• E-journals
• Digital Repositories
• Digital monograph programs and initiatives
• Tenure reform
• Copyright. Locally, the Libraries' web page offers orientation and guidance through its web page:
  http://www.lib.washington.edu/help/guides/copyright.html.