[Asis-l] FW: [CNI-ANNOUNCE] Report: Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication

[Richard Hill]

[Forwarded,  Apologies for duplication,  Dick Hill]

________________________________________
From: CNI-ANNOUNCE -- News from the Coalition [mailto:CNI-ANNOUNCE at cni.org]
On Behalf Of Clifford Lynch
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 10:05 AM
To: CNI-ANNOUNCE -- News from the Coalition
Subject: [CNI-ANNOUNCE] Report: Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly
Communication

The Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of
California, Berkeley has just released an interim  report based on their
extensive in-depth interviews with faculty about needs and practices in
scholarly communication. I have reproduced the announcement below.

Clifford Lynch
Director, CNI

---------------------------------
Interim Report  
Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication:  An In-depth
Study of Faculty Needs and Ways of Meeting Them
 http://cshe.berkeley.edu/publications/publications.php?id=300

Principal Investigator Diane Harley, Ph.D., Senior Researcher
Research Associates: Sarah Earl-Novell, Ph.D., Sophia Krzys Acord, Shannon
Lawrence, Principal Investigator C. Judson King, Professor, Provost Emeritus
and Director
 
 
ABSTRACT:

The Center for Studies in Higher Education, with generous funding from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is conducting research to understand the needs
and desires of faculty for in-progress scholarly communication (i.e., forms
of communication employed as research is being executed) as well as archival
publication. In the interest of developing a deeper understanding of how and
why scholars do what they do to advance their fields, as well as their
careers, our approach focuses on fine-grained analyses of faculty values and
behaviors throughout the scholarly communication lifecycle, including
sharing, collaborating, publishing, and engaging with the public. Well into
our second year, we have posted a draft interim report describing some of
our early results and impressions based on the responses of more than 150
interviewees in the fields of astrophysics, archaeology, biology, economics,
history, music, and political science.
 
Our work to date has confirmed the important impact of disciplinary culture
and tradition on many scholarly communication habits. These traditions may
override the perceived “opportunities” afforded by new technologies,
including those falling into the Web 2.0 category. As we have listened to
our diverse informants, as well as followed closely the prognostications
about the likely future of scholarly communication, we note that it is
absolutely imperative to be precise about terms. That includes being clear
about what is meant by “open access” publishing (i.e., using preprint or
postprint servers for work published in prestigious outlets, versus
publishing in new, untested open access journals, or the more casual
individual posting of working papers, blogs, and other non-peer-reviewed
work). Our work suggests that enthusiasm for technology development and
adoption should not be conflated with the hard reality of tenure and
promotion requirements (including the needs and goals of final archival
publication) in highly competitive professional environments. 

For more information about the research project see the Future of Scholarly
Communication website: 
http://cshe.berkeley.edu/research/scholarlycommunication/
 
Contact:

Diane Harley, Ph.D.
Director, Higher Education in the Digital Age Project
Center for Studies in Higher Education
771 Evans Hall, # 4650
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
voice: 510/642-4343; fax: 510/643-6845
 http://cshe.berkeley.edu/people/dharley.html