NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 21 number 3 - Spring 2001

By Peggy Hoon, Scholarly Communication

The system of scholarly publishing continues to crack and crumble under the relentless pressure of double-digit increases in the costs of journals, promotion and tenure policies that encourage quantity of publication over quality, and copyright transfer practices that place the ownership and use of scholarly research in the hands of those who did not originally create or fund it. Unavoidable serials cancellations continue at research libraries across the country, and restrictive and expensive licensing terms shrink access to information and to the results of scholarship by teaching and research faculty.

These are a few of the concerns addressed by the "Principles of Emerging Systems of Scholarly Publishing," a set of tenets agreed to at a meeting sponsored by the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Merrill Advanced Studies Center of the University of Kansas. Held in Tempe, Arizona, from March 2 to 4, 2000, the meeting was intended to engender discussion among key academic stakeholders in the scholarly publishing process. It also helped to build consensus on fundamental principles that could guide the transformation of the scholarly publishing system. These precepts, or the Tempe Principles as they have come to be known, provide a vision statement of the desired elements for tomorrow’s scholarly publishing system. It is hoped they will inform the design and evaluation of new systems of scholarly publishing.

Authors of the Tempe Principles include university chancellors, presidents, provosts, vice chancellors, library directors, representatives from university presses, AAU, ARL, and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). They ask that participants in the scholarly publishing process, particularly faculty, take ownership of the issues and problems plaguing that process through discussion and endorsement of these fundamental ideals. The Tempe Principles advocate, among other goals, controlling the cost of published research so that access can at least be maintained, if not expanded. Concomitantly, scholars are urged to use electronic capabilities to facilitate access while developing common standards, permanent identifiers, reliable archiving, privacy protection, and systems of peer review. The document emphasizes responsible copyright management and continuance of fair use rights, as well as the need to revisit current promotion and tenure practices.

To view the principles in their entirety, go to http://www.arl.org/scomm/tempe.html. The Scholarly Communication Center of the NCSU Libraries and the Scholarly Communication Subcommittee of the University Library Committee have initiated an energetic effort at NC State to foster awareness and discussion of the Tempe Principles. Faculty members from the subcommittee and the scholarly communication librarian are available to address faculty groups or seminars about the Tempe Principles. They are joined by collection managers who can describe the effects of relentless periodicals price increases on the availability of scholarly information in the NCSU Libraries' collections. To date, about a dozen presentations have been made to various faculty seminars, committees, and at NC State's General Faculty meeting in January 2001. The discussions have been lively and productive, and it is hoped that NC State will be even better prepared to contribute to similar discussions at the national level. To learn more about the Tempe Principles or to sponsor a presentation, please call Peggy Hoon (Scholarly Communication Center, NCSU Libraries) at (919) 513-2046, or send an electronic-mail message to peggy_hoon@ncsu.edu. To learn more about what scholars at NC State can do to help address the scholarly communication crisis, go to http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/scholardo.html.