Scholarly communication refers to how academics find information, create knowledge, and share it with students and beyond academia. Traditionally, scholars would meet and correspond privately, but scholarly journals emerged as correspondence increased. Problems with the current system include commercial publishers controlling access and pricing out readers. Open Access aims to make scholarly works free online, either by publishing in an Open Access journal or self-archiving in an institutional repository. There are advocacy policies and mandates growing for Open Access worldwide to benefit research dissemination and public access to taxpayer-funded work.

1. Scholarly communication
Jenny Ericsson, SLU Library Alnarp

2. Topics today
• The beginnings and development of scholarly
communication – what is it and how did it start?
• Why do we publish?
• How does it work?
• Problems, challenges and possibilities today

3. Definitions
What is scholarly communication?
”How scholars find information, create knowledge,
and communicate among themselves, with
students, and beyond the academy with other
audiences.”
(Scholarly Communication Institute)

4. Scope and issues
Examples:
• Author rights
• Economics
• Visibility
• New models of publishing (e.g. Open Access)
• Rights and access for the public
• Preservation
• …

5. In the beginning…
• In the 17th century, scholars
would meet to present and
discuss papers and ideas.
They also corresponded in
private letters.
• As the correspondence and
the number of scholars
increased, scholarly
journals emerged. Photo: free as a ladybird
(2009). (License CC-BY-SA)

6. Scholarly journals 1
Le Journal des Sçavans
and
Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society
were both first published in
1665! Photo: Wikimedia,
Public Domain.

7. Scholarly journals 2
In the 18th – 19th century:
• Specialised disciplines
• Scientific priority
• Public archiving
Photo: On Being (2009),
License CC-BY-NC-SA.

8. Scholarly journals 3
In the 20th century:
• Huge increase in scientific research
after the Second World War
• Commercial publishers take over
• Electronic publishing Photo: At.morey.tota
(2008). Public Domain.

9. Scholarly journals 4
In the 21st century…?
• The journal crisis
• The Impact Factor
• Open Access publishing
• The Social Web
Photo: Gideon Burton, CC-
• …
licens BY-SA

10. Players in scholarly communication
• Publishers • Scholars
– Commercial – Authors
– Non-commercial – Readers
• University • Funders
publishers – Tax payers
• Learned societies – Private funding
• Libraries • Universities

11. How does it work?
Traditionally, scholars within academia create the information.
These scholars then turn to publishers to produce and package
the information.
Libraries purchase the information from the publishers, organize
it, and provide access to the publications.
This allows for the dissemination of the scholarly information
and continued use of it.

12. Why publish?
• To finish/report results of a research project
• To establish priority – first with these results!
• To get more funding
• To disseminate results
• Quality control (peer review)
• Archival issues

13. The publishing process
• Finished project
• Manuscript
• Find suitable journal
• Submit manuscript
• Assessment by editor (within journal scope?)
• Sent to peer review (rejected or accepted? Changes? Big or minor?)
• Changes made by author (final proof)
• Final acceptance
• ’Cosmetic’ editing by journal (fonts, pagination, logotype…)
• Publication!

14. So… what’s wrong with that, then?
• It’s a public good in private hands!
• Very few, very large publishers write the rules ($$)
• Financial barrier text - reader
• Exclusion of both scholars and other readers
• Tax payers have no access to research they paid for
• = Hampers the progress of both science and society!
• …to name just a few things…

15. Interactions in the conventional
publishing world:
Stock owners
PUBLISHER PROFIT and societies
FREE $$$
”FREE”
SCHOLARS LIBRARY
$$$ $$$
Government/
funds
University

16. Background to Open Access
The journal crisis + the Internet.
Researchers and information specialists worldwide
began to see a potential solution in the 1990s.
Open Access is a new way of organising the
distribution of scientific information.

17. Open Access 1
What is Open Access?
Open Access = ”free availability on the public
internet, permitting any users to read, download,
copy, distribute, print, search, or link to full texts
of these articles” (The Berlin Declaration, 2003)

18. Open Access 2
How do I publish Open Access?
There are two ways!
• By publishing in an Open Access journal
or
• By publishing in a traditional scientific journal AND
depositing a copy in an institutional archive, like
Epsilon. This is called parallel publishing or self-
archiving.

19. A note: Scientific journals
• Traditional journals
• Open Access journals
• Hybrid journals
All three types of journals are peer reviewed!

20. A note: Parallel publishing
• Allowed by most big publishers and many
small
• The best of both worlds
• Absolutely free
• Maximum dissemination
• The SLU vice-chancellor strongly
encourages it (policy 2008)
• Deposit your text in the Epsilon Open
Archive, managed by the SLU Library

21. Another note: Publishers and parallel publishing
• Elsevier (if NOT mandated!)
• Springer Verlag
• Cambridge University Press
they all allow parallel publishing of post-prints
Others allow parallel publishing with some restrictions (for example:
embargo period), while others disagree with parallel publishing.
Read carefully before signing anything!
You can check the policy of the publisher at SHERPA/RoMEO
(http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/). (More later)

22. Open Access 3
This is catching on all over the world… Just a few
examples:
• The Swedish Research Council (VR) mandates OA
publishing
• FORMAS mandates OA publishing
• NIH (National Institute of Health, USA) mandates OA
publishing
• All UK Reasearch Councils mandate OA
• And the SLU Open Access policy!

23. Open Access 4
Some advantages with OA publishing:
• Faster turnaround time – faster dissemination of
research results
• Benefits the progress of science
• Greater visibility - More citations (according to many
studies)!
• Searchable and retrieveable on the web (Google et
al)
• Ethics: Developing countries’ researchers and the
general public have access. ”Science is public
knowledge”.

24. Open Access 5
Some possible disadvantages with OA publishing:
• Someone still has to pay – who?
• Loss of prestige??
• Loss of quality?? Myths!
• Risk of plagiarism increased??
• And for the commercial publishers: losing a lot of
power and money!

25. University Open access policies
SLU Open access policy:
On the 11th of February 2008 the SLU Vice-Chancellor signed a
policy where SLU scholars are urged to publish Open Access
when possible
(Dnr SLU ua 11-474/08)
Many other universities have stronger mandates in favour of OA:
• Chalmers Tekniska Högskola
• Malmö Högskola
• Harvard University
• MIT

26. OA Journals and other OA scientific
publications and resources
How do I find them
?

27. DOAJ http://www.doaj.org

28. Open J-gate
http://www.openj-gate.com/

29. OAIster
http://www.oaister.worldcat.org/

30. SHERPA / RoMEO
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php

31. Some Open Access publishers
• Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• BioMed Central
• Hindawi

32. The SLU Open Access policy
- some benefits with OA publishing
• Increased visibility of SLU research.
• Publishing in Epsilon’s Open Archive can normally
take place when the publication has been accepted
by the journal.
• Increased spread of SLU material.
• Institutions in developing countries, where SLU has
collaborative projects, can take part of the scientific
results from SLU.
• Savings in terms of reduced print costs.
• Publications from SLU are stored in a
comprehensive archive.
• The archive is safe for long term depositing.

33. Where you publish makes a
difference!
Each author’s choice of where to publish adds
another brick to a complex publishing structure.
Your choice may have a dramatic effect on how
accessible, or inaccessible, your research is.
Your decision can limit or facilitate others’ digital
access to significant research.
(The Stanford Lane Medical Library)

34. Please feel free to contact me with questions about
electronic publishing and open access:
Jenny Ericsson, Alnarp library
jenny.ericsson@slu.se
040-415049
http://www. .slu.se/en/library/publish/