Scholarly Communications   Tags: copyright, digital, open access, peer review, publishing  

The Association of College and Research Libraries defines Scholarly Communication 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 model of producing and sharing research in the academic environment, especially the peer-reviewed journal articles that make up a large portion of academic knowledge, is all encapsulated in the term Scholarly Communication. 

The basics:

• Faculty publishing habits are evolving in response to digital tools.
• Libraries are taking a more active role in the production, dissemination and preservation of scholarship.
• Universities are establishing policies and infrastucture to support these shifts. 

The Scholarly Communications initiative at FSU has been developing since 2009, and developed a foundation in 2011 with several important movements, outlined below:

A joint faculty/librarian Task Force on Scholarly Communications researched these sorts of programs at other peer universities and provided some recommendations to the libraries, the faculty senate and university administration. (The final report is available in DigiNole Commons). 

The Faculty Senate unianimously voted to approve an "Open Access Resolution," which expresses support for the principle of open access, the libraries role in developing it on campus, and faculty who wish to pursue it. Click to read more about the resolution. 

University Libraries launched an institional repository (a digital archive) titled DigiNole Commons for preserving FSU's scholarly publications and making them openly accessible on the web. 

University Libraries hired a Scholarly Communications Librarian to further lead these efforts, producing informational materials, offering training and providing advising and support in terms of scholarly publishing in the digital age. Contact Micah Vandegrift at mvandegrift@fsu.edu.