Scholarly communication in the 21st century : the impact of new technologies and models

Abstract

The basic model for scholarly communication in science and technology has remained unchanged for over three hundred years, with the journal playing the central role. However, over the past thirty years there has been growing concern as journal prices have increased faster than library budgets and fewer and fewer readers have had access to the journals they need, leading to the well-documented 'serials crises'. The widespread introduction of the internet in the 1990s has resulted in some improvements in communication, with readers being able to access papers at their desks rather than having to visit the library. Also, with site licences and consortia deals the downward trend in readers has been reversed. However, the fundamental problem remains - the rate of increase in cost to libraries for electronic access continues to be greater than the increase in library budgets. This paper will show how by harnessing the power of the internet, authors will be able to distribute their work to all interested readers - not just those lucky enough to have a subscription. It will describe how universities can take responsibility for archiving their intellectual wealth and making it more widely available. Finally, the paper will show how the adoption of institutional repositories and open access journals could bring about a change in the financial model of journal publishing, bringing cost savings to society and improving communications, while still preserving the important functions of peer-review.