From: Colin Steele <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 02:00:25 +0000

Readers of this list might be interested in these 2 new articles,
listed below by Dr Mary Anne  Kennan, the Editor of Australian
Academic and Research Libraries. References are  made to American and
British scholarly communication and publishing initiatives in the last
3 decades. Colin Steele

Research support services in academic libraries – two papers forthcoming

We are planning a special issue of Australian Academic & Research
Libraries for December 2014 on evolving research support services. Two
of the authors of papers accepted for this issue have already placed
their authors accepted versions in their institutional repository.

The first is a big picture paper by Colin Steele an Emeritus Fellow at
the Australian National University titled Scholarly Communication,
Scholarly Publishing and University Libraries. Plus ca Change?. It is
a position paper which is grounded in the literature including a
number of reports and policy documents, but also comes from deep
personal knowledge and experience. The paper will provide AARL readers
with an excellent overview of the historical context and those issues
which remain unresolved

Colin Steele's abstract

The scholarly communication and research evaluation landscape is
locked into historical paradigms which inadequately reflect the
opportunities of the digital era. Why hasn’t the Internet disrupted
the practices and the economics of scholarly publishing? The article
traces how university library budgets have become dominated by a small
number of multinational publishers and attempts at scholarly
communication change have only had limited impact, despite the
opportunities for increased global distribution of research
scholarship. Open access initiatives are assessed in relation to
future scholarly communication change in which university libraries
play an increasing role in campus scholarly ecosystems.

Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/11944

The second paper is by Dr Danny Kingsley who is a Visiting Fellow at
the Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science and
Executive Officer, Australian Open Access Support Group. Danny’s paper
is a timely one titled Paying for publication: issues and challenges
for research support services.  It addresses article processing
charges (APCs) a topic which is extremely relevant to academic
librarians, for whom scholarly communication and publishing is a
central concern and an area where activities and services have
developed significantly in the past few years. There is relatively
little formal literature on the subject, and this paper identifies and
analyses published commentary (mainly from informal publications) and
statements from publishers and other stakeholders. The discussion is
international in its coverage.

Danny Kingsley's abstract

Payment for publication is an increasingly prevalent component of the
scholarly publishing landscape, and librarians have a professional
requirement to be aware of the current situation. This paper explores
this phenomenon, including an analysis of what is being charged for
publication. Comparisons between the different types of open access
publishing, in fully open access and in hybrid journals, show the
considerably higher costs of hybrid open access. Despite this
discrepancy there remain issues with the discoverability of some
hybrid open access articles. Payment for publication is changing the
funding base for scholarly publication therefore broadening the
administrative areas responsible for management of the system. New
relationships between players across the sector need to be developed
and fostered. To participate in this changing landscape librarians
need a knowledge of the source of institutional and government funds
for article processing charges and these funding bodies' approaches to
funding hybrid. New offerings from publishers, such as membership
schemes and mega journals further complicate the situation, not helped
by challenges in obtaining data about what is being spent in this
area. This increasingly complex situation potentially expands the role
of libraries within institutions into the future, which is preferable
to becoming irrelevant.

Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/11924

---------------------------------------------

Colin Steele
Emeritus Fellow
ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
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