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This is an interesting piece of reading for the weekend-----It came forth from my rep at the NIU library. Something think about--- Have a good weekend-- As we in the library again examine ways to acquire journals with traditionally tight resources, I'd like to share with you an initiative in which the Association of College and Research Libraries is involved, a public information campaign, Create Change (www.createchange.org) . A group of scholarly societies and library organizations is attempting to spark dialogue on and generate alternatives to the scholarly publishing system now making it difficult for many libraries and scholars to gain access to published research. The site creatingchange.org has a wealth of information, including charts and graphs of real and estimated cost and cost-impact information, the text of a brochure which can be used, the results of several recent pricing studies, a database of journal editors, a list of speakers on the topic of scholarly publishing who are willing to speak on these issues and the alternatives across the U.S., alternative models of publishing and examples of new projects which show some promise, a discussion of the effects of publisher mergers, and more. As a library user, researcher, teacher, reviewer, or editor, the fact of increased serials prices has more far reaching implications than many realize. Year after year, libraries are reducing their journal and monograph collections, even though the production of scholarly information grows exponentially. As a consequence, you, your colleagues, and your graduate students have access to less and less of the world's scholarly output each year. Scholarly communication has become a multi-billion dollar business in which commercial publishers routinely increase prices by double-digit percentages each year. Libraries simply cannot afford to keep up with unit costs for commercially published journals, which are typically three to seven times as high as society or not-for-profit journals. A straight-line projection suggests that by 2015, the average academic research library will have had to cancel another 17% of its journals and cut back in other areas - just to keep up with inflating prices. Another projection, based on a somewhat less favorable economy, predicts a subscription reduction of 45% for the average research library! Currently, 121 North American members of the Association of Research Libraries spend a total of US $480 million on journals. By 2015, it is estimated that the cost to support these journal subscriptions will be as much as US $1.9 billion, with individual libraries paying nearly $16 million a year - just to keep their journal collections at current levels. To put this figure in context, the current total budget for the average ARL library, including salaries, collections, equipment, supplies, and everything else, is $16.76 million! Below is the text of the brochure introducing the problem, and Create Change. I hope you can take the time to read it, and to peruse the site. Scholarly communication refers to the formal and informal processes by which the research and scholarship of faculty, researchers, and independent scholars are created, evaluated, edited, formatted, distributed, organized, made accessible, archived, used, and transformed. Publishing is the formal system whose key players include faculty, publishers (including scholarly societies), and libraries. Building on the works of others, faculty first create and then give their research to publishers; publishers manage peer review, and provide editorial improvement and wide distribution; libraries acquire, organize, and provide access to primary resources and new materials and preserve them for future generations of scholars. The current system of scholarly communication is changing. Libraries and their institutions can no longer keep up with the increasing volume and cost of scholarly resources. The promise of the digital revolution to decrease costs and increase access has been threatened by commercial publishers intent on maximizing revenues through raising prices and restricting use. Projects and proposals to transform the system are being shaped primarily by stakeholders outside of the faculty---publishers, librarians, administrators, state legislators, information technologists. Involvement by faculty is critical in ensuring a new system that meets your needs and those of future scholars. The System Is No Longer Working You may be finding it harder and harder to locate articles you need as most campuses continue to cancel journal subscriptions. o Commercial publishers are major players in science, and increasingly social science, journal publishing, and report profit margins up to 40% o Journals have gone up in price an average of 9% a year since 1986, while the consumer price index has increased only 3.3% a year o Libraries spent 170% more to purchase 6% fewer journal titles in 1999 than in 1986 o Commercial journal publishers are expanding their market control through acquisitions, mergers, and the purchase of individual titles from learned scholarly societies o Societies sometimes "sell" their titles to commercial publishers who capitalize the expansion of the journal through significant increases in the subscription price to libraries Your star graduate student in the humanities may not be able to find a publisher for his or her first book. o Subsidies from granting agencies and universities for publishing in the humanities have virtually disappeared in the last 15 years o Libraries are purchasing 26% fewer monographs today than they did 15 years ago due to high journal prices and resources in new formats o Many scholarly monographs sell only 200-400 copies compared with 1500 copies a decade ago o University presses reject some quality manuscripts with limited market potential because publishing costs cannot be recovered When you publish, you may be signing away your rights to use your own work. o Copyright transfer agreements often require you to transfer all of your copyrights exclusively to the publisher, thereby losing control of any subsequent public distribution of your work o Restrictions on use may apply to personal distribution for teaching and research purposes, or increasingly to publicly available web archives Although a possible alternative for scholarly communication, electronic publishing brings its own challenges. o Some major commercial publishers are seeking to restrict access to electronic information through legislation and technical protections o Many of the electronic resources available on your campus are governed by licenses which often restrict how you and your students can use the content o Small societies and university presses do not have the capital to invest in the new media o Societies worry that individual faculty will drop their memberships if the society's journals are available on a campus network o Societies and presses fear that they may not be able to attract quality manuscripts if faculty are uncertain about the perceived value of electronic publications in the promotion and tenure process o Libraries are concerned with the long-term preservation and archiving issues raised by electronic media The System Is Changing - YOU Can Make a Difference o Encourage discussion of scholarly communication issues and proposals for change in your department and school o Include electronic publications in promotion and tenure discussions o Encourage your professional society to consider creating enhanced competitors to expensive commercial titles o Support your society's electronic publishing program by submitting papers, reviewing, and serving on the editorial board o Encourage your society to explore alternatives to contracting or selling publications to a commercial publisher o Encourage your society to maintain reasonable prices, and faculty and user friendly access terms o Modify, if appropriate, any contract you sign with a commercial publisher ensuring your right to use your work, including posting on a public archive o Examine the pricing, copyright, and licensing agreements of any commercially published journal you contribute to as an author, reviewer, or editor o Consider using your influence by refusing to review for expensive journals; by refusing to serve on editorial boards of such publications; by supporting the library's cancellation of expensive, low-use titles; and by encouraging colleagues to do the same o Investigate your campus intellectual property policies and participate in their development o Invite library participation in faculty departmental meetings and graduate seminars to discuss scholarly communication issues o Include your librarian when meeting with a publisher's representative o Familiarize yourself with journal cost-per-use studies, such as those conducted at Cornell and Wisconsin (see Create Change web site) o Support your library's participation in SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition http://www.arl.org/sparc/ o Submit papers to SPARC-supported journals in your discipline, serve on SPARC editorial boards and/or agree to review papers for SPARC titles If you are a journal editor: o Take an interest in the business aspects of your journal o If warranted, consider moving your journal to a noncommercial publisher or creating an alternative journal For more information on these issues, contact your library liaison and visit the Create Change website http://www.createchange.org © May 2000. Create Change is a partnership among Association of Research Libraries, Association of College & Research Libraries, SPARC Washington, DC Norman A. Stahl Professor and Chair Literacy Education GH 223 Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL 60115 Phone: (815) 753-9032 FAX: (815) 753-8563 [log in to unmask]