Principles for Emerging Systems of Scholarly Publishing

Approved by Senate March 29, 2001

  1. The cost to the academy of published research should be contained so that access to relevant research publications for faculty and students can be maintained and even expanded. Members of the university community should collaborate to develop strategies that further this end. Faculty participation is essential to the success of this process.

  2. Electronic capabilities should be used, among other things, to: provide wide access to scholarship, encourage interdisciplinary research, and enhance interoperability and searchability. Development of common standards will be particularly important in the electronic environment.

  3. Scholarly publications must be archived in a secure manner so as to remain permanently available and, in the case of electronic works, a permanent identifier for citation and linking should be provided.

  4. The system of scholarly publication must continue to include processes for evaluating the quality of scholarly work and every publication should provide the reader with information about evaluation the work has undergone.

  5. The academic community embraces the concepts of copyright and fair use and seeks a balance in the interest of owners and users in the digital environment. Universities, colleges, and especially their faculties should manage copyright and its limitations and exceptions in a manner that assures the faculty access to and use of their own published works in their research and teaching.

  6. In negotiating publishing agreements, faculty should assign the rights to their work in a manner that promotes the ready use of their work and choose journals that support the goal of making scholarly publications available at reasonable cost.

  7. The time from submission to publication should be reduced in a manner consistent with the requirements for quality control.

  8. To assure quality and reduce proliferation of publications, the evaluation of faculty should place a greater emphasis on quality of publications and a reduced emphasis on quantity.

  9. In electronic as well as print environments, scholars and students should be assured privacy with regard to their use of materials.

Proposed by the Senate Library Committee: Principles for Emerging Systems of Scholarly Publishing, March 2000 Conference, Tempe, Arizona, sponsored by the Association of the American Universities, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Merrill Advanced Center of the University of Kansas.