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 E: [log in to unmask]