Information on Prices and Other Issues in Scholarly Communication

Academic and research communities are faced with increasingly difficult and complex choices regarding discovery, access, funding, and preservation of scholarly information. Unsustainable business models of the publishing community are forcing libraries to make difficult choices and look for new ways to build and preserve collections, while meeting the information demands of their users. In recognition of the transformation occurring in scholarly communication and publishing, the University of California and the UCSB Library are developing opportunities for education and action. Within the University of California several avenues have been established to review, evaluate, and as necessary develop policies and guidelines to address the issues:

University of California Initiatives & Resources

• Office of Scholarly Communication, news, issues, facts, UC responses, and more
• Libraries & Scholarly Communication, outlines the key challenges and components of the libraries' scholarly communication program
• eScholarship Publishing Initiatives, housed at the California Digital Library, but run by the UC Office of Scholarly Communication

Other Initiatives & Resources

• Association of Research Libraries press release [February 2009] and announcement: The Global Economic Crisis and it's Impact on Publishing: ARL Issues Statement to Scholarly Publishers and Vendors
• Biomedical Central: The Open Access Publisher, an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher, which has pioneered the open access publishing model
• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), a one stop shop to open access journals for users.
• Journal Info, journal info, including open access alternatives to those published using traditional models
• PLOS (Public Library of Science), a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource
• SPARC (Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition), an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly publishing system