Joint CURL/SCONUL Scholarly Communications Group

1. Joint CURL/SCONUL Scholarly Communications Group Stephen Pinfield University of Nottingham

2. Remit • To take a lead role in the fast changing area of scholarly communications on behalf of the academic library community in the UK and Ireland in order to assist it to influence, adapt to, and develop strategies in relation to: • the evolving role of library and information services within a changing scholarly communications landscape; • the evolving economics of scholarly communication: • building partnerships with interested parties to further the scholarly communications; • collection, retention and preservation policies; • cultural change. • To monitor the impact of scholarly communications developments inside and outside the UK and Ireland (including USA, Europe and Australia) so as to engender a more informed and proactive approach to scholarly communications issues throughout the academic and wider library and academic communities in the UK and Ireland. • To sponsor advocacy in academic communities about scholarly communication issues and to act as a principal body which interacts on, and acts as an advocate for, scholarly communications issues with relevant regional, national and international bodies. • To keep the CURL and SCONUL community, as well as the wider library and academic communities, informed about scholarly communications issues and developments on a regular basis • To identify and promote initiatives in key areas, especially through innovative project work • To monitor, and report on, the Group’s progress against an action plan agreed annually by the CURL and SCONUL Executive Boards

3. Remit • To take a lead role in the fast changing area of scholarly communications on behalf of the academic library community in the UK and Ireland in order to assist it to influence, adapt to, and develop strategies in relation to: • the evolving role of library and information services within a changing scholarly communications landscape; • the evolving economics of scholarly communication: • building partnerships with interested parties to further the scholarly communications; • collection, retention and preservation policies; • cultural change. • To monitor the impact of scholarly communications developments inside and outside the UK and Ireland (including USA, Europe and Australia) so as to engender a more informed and proactive approach to scholarly communications issues throughout the academic and wider library and academic communities in the UK and Ireland. • To sponsor advocacy in academic communities about scholarly communication issues and to act as a principal body which interacts on, and acts as an advocate for, scholarly communications issues with relevant regional, national and international bodies. • To keep the CURL and SCONUL community,as well as the wider library and academic communities, informedabout scholarly communications issues and developments on a regular basis • To identify and promote initiatives in key areas, especially through innovative project work • To monitor, and report on, the Group’s progress against an action plan agreed annually by the CURL and SCONUL Executive Boards

4. Scholarly Communication definition • Definition adopted by the group (SPARC definition): “Scholarly communication refers to the formal and informal processes by which the research and scholarship of academic staff, researchers, and independent scholars are created, evaluated, edited, formatted, distributed, organised, made accessible, archived, used, and transformed.” • Suggested new definition (from Paul Ayris): “Scholarly communication encompasses everything that researchers, teachers and learners need in order to be effective. It covers the authoring, publishing, dissemination and reading of information produced for teaching, learning or research in whatever format, with the tools, measures and systems needed to provide access to and store these materials in perpetuity.”

5. Priorities • To work with a wide range of stakeholders • Library: CILIP, SPARC, LIBER, ISCA • HE: JISC, RIN, HEA, UUK, Russell Group, 94 Group • Wider: RCUK and Research Councils, Government (eg. DTI, OSI), HofC Science and Technology Committee, OFT, EU, ALPSP • To represent HE library interests • responding to consultations, surveys etc • advocacy, lobbying etc • To encourage advocacy within the HE community • advocacy campaign • To support relevant projects and initiatives • access study • JISC/RIN study in OA and libraries • To keep the HE library community informed • Website • Newsletter

6. Recent successes • Liaison with UUK and involvement in drafting UUK statement on published outputs and in drafting a recent update (September 2006) • Liaison with Russell Group involvement in drafting RG position statement and providing update (December 2005) • Response to EU sponsored study (August 2006) and ongoing liaison. • Liaison with RCUK, SP spoke at RCUK–Learned Societies meeting (June 2006) • Meeting with Lord Sainsbury (July 2006) • Response to British Academy study on digital information (May 2006) • Input into design of studies initiatives eg access studies (2006) • Discussions with ALPSP (ongoing), and OA publishers (July 2006) • Involvement in new EUA OA Group • Regular Newsletters

7. Questions • Should we adopt a different definition of ‘scholarly communication’? What practical difference would this make to the work of the Group? • Are there any important relevant areas not currently covered by the Group? • Are there any CURL-specific issues not adequately covered? • How should the Group develop its relationship with ALPSP and publishers? • How can the Group influence/lobby key stakeholders eg government, UUK etc?