
Most of the content of scientific journals is created by academics, reviewed by academics, and read by academics. The print journal middleman adds decreasing value to the process as information technology reduces the mechanical overheads of reviewing, editing, and distribution.
University libraries are in the business of archiving the most important scholarly materials and making them available to a broad community. By diverting some of what they pay middlemen to supporting repositories and e-journals, they could increase the flow of scholarly communication without increasing costs. That is, they can increase their productivity and address better the needs of their customers, and indeed the needs of an increasingly connected global community that can benefit from and contribute to scholarly communication.
Creating and sustaining more open scholarly communication channels requires new approaches to scholarly work and its validation, new information science and technology, new intellectual property models, and new funding models. Penn can make important contributions to this interdisciplinary endeavor. I hope that you will explore the Winning Independence site and begin discussing the issues of copyright and reforming the scholarly communication
process with your colleagues.
- Fernando Pereira
Andrew and Debra Rachleff Professor
Chair, Computer and Information Science
Andrew and Debra Rachleff Professor
Chair, Computer and Information Science