Reshaping Scholarly Communication

ARL will be a leader in the development of effective, extensible, sustainable, and economically viable models of scholarly communication that provide barrier-free access to quality information in support of the mission of research institutions.

Outcomes

As ARL moves forward in this strategic direction, some expected outcomes in the next three years include:

Outcome A: ARL will be a leader in articulating and characterizing the dynamic system of scholarly communication.

Outcome B: ARL members will be leaders in implementing and assessing selected new models of scholarly communication

Outcome C: ARL will have influenced the marketplace so as to advance fair pricing, and improve the terms and conditions under which content is made available, including openness and transparency in contract agreements.

Outcome D: ARL will have a range of powerful and effective alliances to help shape and promote the various new models appropriate for different disciplines and communities.

Strategies

Strategies that ARL may pursue in moving forward include:

Strategy 1: Encourage and facilitate alliances with and among groups of research institutions, other organizations serving research libraries and their institutions, and the for-profit and nonprofit publishing sectors, and build new relationships and communication strategies with university presses and scholarly societies to create understanding and advance development of new functionally complete systems of scholarly communication that serve their communities.

Strategy 2: Sponsor, conduct, and promote research that will inform the development and assessments of models of scholarly communication. Develop projects and activities that address scholarly communication issues such as cost and use/impact of open-access articles and licensed journals, future of the extended argument and changing trends for the scholarly monograph, continuing access to data and other varieties of content beyond traditional published literature, linked digital repositories for managing scholarly output, the role of universities in the dissemination of scholarship, and policies regarding the creation and ownership of scholarly work, especially author rights and rights associated with the collaborative creation of new types of complex media.

Strategy 3: Actively pursue the development of a variety of appropriate responses to unacceptable business practices (e.g., develop and assess strategies that libraries could take in the marketplace that are within acceptable legal practice, monitor faculty actions, broaden the cadre of economists and legal anti-trust scholars undertaking research on new pricing models, assess consequences of bundling, develop principles and best practices around licensing terms).

Strategy 4: Accelerate and enhance outreach and communication efforts to inform the educational and research communities on trends, findings, opportunities and their impact on faculty assessment (e.g., promotion and tenure, post tenure review, and annual review); new models of peer review for research and teaching; evolving university budget and financial planning, and strategic visioning. Encourage and support outreach and communication efforts to educate new scholars and graduate students about scholarly communication systems and their roles as researchers and authors. Expand offerings through the ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication.

Strategy 5: Build on current relationships with partners such as the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, Coalition for Networked Information, Association of College and Research Libraries, Canadian Association of Research Libraries, and through alliances with the Association of American Universities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and other organizations that share common interests in influencing the changing environment of scholarly communication.