University-Based Publishing?

A University of California (UC) task force has recommended UC establish a university-based publishing program to blunt the effect of commercialization and better serve scholars, especially in emerging disciplines. The report, Publishing Needs and Opportunities at the University of California, examines everything from the tenure process to peer review and the effect of market forces in evaluating the university's publishing practices, concluding that UC should “play a greater role in publishing scholarly work,” although it is “not clear how it might most effectively do so” (see UCPublishing.notlong.com).

The task force was chartered in May 2006, under the auspices of the UC Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Advisory Committee (SLASIAC). Among recommendations by Catherine Candee, director of publishing and strategic initiatives at the California Digital Library, and Lynne Withey, director of the UC Press:

• Establish a university publishing program to build upon the existing activities of the UC Press and eScholarship.
• Create a system for publishing in alternative formats that would include selection criteria, editorial and technical development, criteria for determining if the project will be sold or made available on an open access basis, marketing and sales strategies, and maintenance and preservation.
• Work with campuses to establish local services to assist faculty with publishing options, especially technical advice on digital projects.
• Begin a systemwide discussion of criteria for evaluating work published in nontraditional formats for purposes of tenure and promotion.
• Analyze the economic issues associated with an expansion of university-based publishing.

The UC report represents yet another step by libraries and other institutional stakeholders to become more actively involved in disseminating the research and scholarly writings of faculty. Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to enjoin faculty members to deposit their scholarly output into a university repository, to be run out of the library (see News, LJ 3/15/08, p. 16ff.).

While UC faculty members are mostly pleased with their publishing options, vice chancellors for research and deans expressed dismay about “the gradual diminution of publishing options and opportunities for UC faculty, particularly in the arts and humanities.”

The report finds a “paradox” at the individual faculty level: though faculty members “would like to see the university play a more active role in blunting the effect of the commercialization of academic publishing, they will not and cannot risk their own academic lives to make it happen. The university must step in.”