As many academics are aware, the scholarly communication system is in
crisis. Libraries reduce the amount of material they acquire, because
the prices of publications---especially in science, technology, and
medicine (STM)---continue to rise faster than inflation. As Jennifer
Sutton wrote in a recent article in the Brown Alumni Monthly
(March/April 2001): "The University now spends almost $4 million a year
on serials, about twice what it spent ten years ago; over the same period,
however, the number of them it receives for that money has declined
by 20 percent."
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) is
"an international alliance of libraries building a more competitive
scholarly communication marketplace as a means of addressing the serious
problems caused by the soaring cost of information." Brown joined as
a founder in 1998. There are now 195 members and eight affiliates, and
a program of special ventures designed to improve scholarly communication.
SPARC Alternatives offers lower-cost titles that directly compete with
higher priced STM journals in important fields. Some of these titles
are: Algebraic & Geometric Topology, the American Chemical Society's
Organic Letters and Crystal Growth & Design, Evolutionary
Ecology Research (EER), Geometry & Topology, IEEE Sensors
Journal, and the Royal Society of Chemistry's PhysChemComm
and Geochemical Transactions. These titles, with exception of
EER, which is also available in print, are electronic, and are priced
lower than similar journals. For example, IEEE Sensors Journal,
at a cost of $395, will compete with Sensors and Actuators, a
$5000 commercial title. Geochemical Transactions at $100 is an
alternative to Organic Geochemistry, ($2,300). Geometry &
Topology and Algebraic & Geometric Topology, which are free,
compete with Topology ($1,200).
SPARC Leading Edge supports vendors that offer new and beneficial publishing
models for scientists and academe. There are three titles in this category.
Documenta Mathematica, a free web journal, hosted by the University
of Bielefeld in Germany, has been published since 1996. Authors retain
the rights to their articles, and institutional users are authorized
to store and provide access to the electronic version locally. An archive
is maintained at the University of Goettingen. The New Journal of
Physics, also an e-journal, is paid for by authors, has two international
sponsors, offers quick turn-around time, and covers no sub-disciplines.
Finally, the Internet Journal of Chemistry is another inexpensive
e-journal, created by an independent group of chemists in the U.S.,
U.K., and Germany. It offers enhanced chemistry models, such as 3-D
graphics of molecular structures, movies and animation, and allows readers
to manipulate structures.
The third venture, SPARC Scientific Communities, supports the development
of non-profit gateways to serve scientists and smaller publishers. None
of these projects are free. Bio-One is a large, web-based aggregation
of research from societies in the biological, ecological, and environmental
sciences. It is made available by Amigos Library Services with a President
and Chief Operating Officer from SPARC, funds from Amigos and the Online
Computer Library Center, Inc., database hosting by the University of
Kansas, and data fabrication and other services by Allen Press. This
is expected to provide access to close to 40 titles. Columbia Earthscape
and MIT Cognet are both university press databases offering news on
earth and cognitive sciences. They include abstracts and full-text from
books and journals, data sharing possibilities, and many other links.
eScholarship is a project based at the University of California that
is now cooperating with the University Press on the production of digital
versions of books and e-print repositories. Project Euclid is a partnership
between Cornell University Library and Duke University Press to promote
effective scholarship in theoretical and applied mathematics and statistics.
Its web site offers the user everything from preprints to published
journals.
All of these activities are not just starting to change the way academics
look at scholarly publication, but are also affecting how other publishers
operate. Recently, the American Journal of Physical Anthropology,
working with SPARC, reduced its institutional subscription rate from
$2085 a year to $1390 a year. Elsevier, publisher of some of the highest
priced titles, has created the "New Elsevier," which is offering a lower
rate of increase for multi-year subscriptions, expanded author rights
for publication on the web, a commitment to electronic archiving, and
package deals for desktop delivery. SPARC has truly ignited a change
in the academic world and will continue to make published scholarship
more affordable and accessible
--Frederick Lynden
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