Action Needed:

The faculty must continue to lead the effort to solve the scholarly communications and journal publishing crisis. Faculty play an influential role in addressing the issues and identifying potential solutions since they create, edit, and review research data and benefit significantly from journal publication.

Background:

At a variety of universities faculty have held forums and communicated directly with commercial publishers and editorial boards regarding their concerns about the costs of journal subscriptions. The following universities have passed resolutions about the crisis in scholarly communications:

• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, Office of President
• Cornell University
• Harvard University

The UC Davis Academic Senate Library Committee members endorse the importance of faculty discussions within departments, schools, and colleges regarding the choices faculty make in sharing and contributing intellectual content via journal publishing and the impact of these choices for faculty recognition and compensation. As supplementary data for those discussions, the following talking points are presented.

Situation:

UC faculty, staff, and students have enjoyed online access to many journal titles since 1995 and benefited from system-wide contracts between the UC libraries and various commercial publishers, such as Elsevier, Wiley, Kluwer, and Blackwell. System-wide contracts benefit all UC individuals because a larger pool of titles is available to everyone at a fixed predictable cost.

The UC contracts for electronic access to several publisher packages expire at the end of 2004. The UC Libraries represented by the California Digital Library (CDL) staff will be negotiating with publishers, such as Kluwer and Blackwell to craft contracts which will meet the ongoing needs of UC research, teaching and patient care efforts, and realistically reflect the library's ability to afford continued access to electronic and/or print journal formats. The current economic picture for libraries is bleak because of rising price inflation rates (average 16%) for journals and potential unfavorable foreign currency exchanges (14%-20% purchasing power reductions) for journals distributed by European-held publishers. At least 50% of the library's current journal titles are from non-US publishers.

Talking Points:

1. UC Davis faculty create new knowledge using an array of resources provided by UC and other organizations. In addition, faculty serve as editors and peer reviewers to assess the quality of research disseminated to the world. Commercial publishers provide mechanisms for authors to submit their papers, have the papers reviewed by an expert panel, and distribute a packaged set of papers to the world. Individuals, institutions, and libraries pay the publisher for information the publisher does not create or review.
2. It is critical that faculty review their options for sharing their scholarly work, for being recognized, and for being compensated for their intellectual contributions. Open access peer reviewed publishing models, such as the ones offered by the Public Library of Science and Oxford University Press, are examples of different approaches to scholarly journal publication.
3. It is essential for faculty to examine their professional society and organization publication programs to determine whether there are practices and revenue expectations that contribute to the rising costs of journal publishing. Reviewing the society's or organization's contract with commercial publishers is critical to the discussion regarding the cost of publishing a scholarly journal. UC Davis librarian subject specialists are most willing to discuss the available publishing options. (If we use Blackwell, a publisher specializing in society publications, as one model for the average journal inflation rate, the following applies to UC Davis subscribed titles):

   	Average Inflation
   Biological & Agricultural Sciences (109 titles)	19.5%
   Health Sciences (63 titles)	16%
   Humanities & Social Sciences, (106 titles)	19%
   Physical Sciences & Engineering (12 titles)	27%

4. Access and costs for journal subscriptions are affected by the publisher's willingness to offer a consortial agreement. When publishers are not interested in negotiating with the California Digital Library on behalf of the UC libraries, UC Davis faculty, staff, and students do not have electronic access to subscribed titles held only by other UC libraries.
5. It is important for faculty to examine the copyright and intellectual property agreements associated with a company or organization that publishes one's research results. Faculty who give up rights to disseminate one's research results via multiple channels for educational purposes, such as class reserves or distance learning programs, force the library to pay several different fees and/or licenses for the same information.

Resources to Consult:

1. UC Davis University Library subject department heads or AUL for Research Services and Collections:
   • For humanities & social sciences – Myra Appel
   • For agricultural sciences – Bob Heyer-Gray
   • For health and life sciences – Beth Callahan
   • For physical sciences & engineering – Bob Heyer-Gray
   • For general issues – Gail Yokote
2. UC Davis University Library web site, Book and Journal Collections in Transition
3. CDL web site: Reshaping Scholarly Communications
4. Association of Research Libraries "Create Change" web site
5. UC Davis University Library web site, Copyright & Intellectual Property