Scholarly Communications
Scholarly communications is the system scholars and researchers employ to create, distribute, use, and preserve their work. Traditionally, this communication has been in the form of monographs and treatises, journal articles, conference presentations and published proceedings, and other formal channels, but new ways of doing scholarship and new technologies for its dissemination have resulted in challenges and opportunities for furthering our collective scholarly endeavor. The Libraries seek to facilitate scholarly communication in all its forms.
What can authors do?
- Increase the impact of your work by depositing a digital copy in NC DOCKS. Using an online repository, you can deposit research materials (including pre- and/or post-prints of articles plus supporting data) and link to it from a personal website. Benefits include increased citations, access for scholars without subscriptions to that journal, a stable, online URL for your publications, and a strong preservation policy.
- Try to retain copyright and control of your own scholarship. When you choose a journal in which to publish, look closely at their policies on copyrights, including self-archiving and other uses of your work. Consider modifying your contract by using an author addendum. SPARC’s author addendum is a legal agreement that allows you to retain specific parts of your copyrights.
- Consider publishing in an open access venue. The Directory of Open Access Journals lists more than 3,900 journals. To publish in open access journals, you may be required to pay a publication fee.
- Research your journal before publishing to decide if it represents a sustainable publishing model. The following resources are helpful guides:
- Journal Cost Effectiveness: Ranks internationally-published journals by price per article or citation.
- Publisher and Journal Profiles: Lists publisher, list price, impact factor, and average annual price increase.
- Role of Scholarly Societies: Discusses best practices among high-profile societies.
- SHERPA/RoMEO: Investigate whether the journal allows you to self archive your paper in NC DOCKS or another repository.
For more information, please refer to:
- Library guide on scholarly communication
- Scholarly Communication (Association of College & Research Libraries)