As a professor and researcher, what role can I play in the "Scholarly Communication Crisis?"
There are some actions that you can take as an individual. When you plan to publish, be aware of the pricing habits of potential publishers. If possible, publish with those who have reasonable individual and institutional pricing. As a researcher and author, you create the content which is then sold back to the library often at a substantial cost to the institution where you work. It is in your best interest to encourage publishers to keep prices down so titles will be widely owned. As an author, consider retaining as much copyright control of your own work as possible. This allows you, instead of the publisher, to make decisions about how and when your work can be used by others.
If you are an editor or reviewer for a journal, be aware of the pricing of the publication your efforts are supporting. If you do not agree with the policies of the publisher, think about what steps you can take to make them aware of your concerns.
As a library user, you can educate yourself about the issues related to scholarly communication and discuss these issues with the librarians. Think about your priorities for information resources and convey them to the collection manager assigned to your department. Additionally, you can support the efforts of the Libraries to develop new resources and ways of providing information access.
To find more about issues related to copyright ownership see Introduction to Copyright Resources from the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).
For an example of how some scholars in the mathematical community have responded to the scholarly communication crisis, see "Scientific Publishing: A Mathematician's Viewpoint" by Professor Joan S. Birman, Columbia University.
