What is Scholarly Communication?
Scholarly communication can be defined as “the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use. The system includes both formal means of communication, such as publication in peer-reviewed journals, and informal channels, such as electronic listservs.” - From ARL http://www.arl.org/focus-areas/scholarly-communication#.VNTscJ3F8sk
Scholarly Communication system diagram (derived from the one in Western Libraries http://www.lib.uwo.ca/scholarship/scholarlycommunication.html)
Scholarly Communication system diagram with roles of stakeholders
What are the problems with the current scholarly communication system?
The scholarly communication system has been working great for centries. Why do people complain now? What has changed? And what are the problems with the current system?
It is true that the current scholarly communication system has been working great, especially in the print world. However, the invention of computing technology and internet in the last couple of decade has changed a great deal in the way how people communicate, learn and share. Those changes has put forth big challenges on the current system. The problems arose when the current system is not able to overcome the challenges.
| Changes | Problems caused |
| From print to electronic | Serial crisis |
| convenience of information exchange and sharing | Permission crisis |
| Expanded user group for academic research | Access crisis |
Scholarly communication system diagram with roles and stakeholders and the problems caused by inablility of adapting to changes
