Learn more about the scholarly communication crisis and what actions we can take through the following websites:

ACRL Scholarly Communication Initiative

Supporting the broader goals of combating the serials crisis by transforming scholarly communication, this ACRL site provides various resources. Key sources to peruse are the Principles and Strategies for the Reform of Scholarly Communication, the Scholarly Communication Toolkit containing strategies for advocacy, the ACRL/ARL Institute on Scholarly Communication, the ACRL Taking Action resource, and the SCHOLCOMM Discussion list.

Create Change

Aimed at faculty and librarians, this site provides background information and data on the scholarly communications issues, as well as the framework and tools for local action. Create Change is an action-oriented initiative sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries, the Association of College and Research Libraries (a division of the American Library Association), and SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition).

Reshaping Scholarly Communication

This University of California site provides current news, an excellent overview of the topic, plus specific actions to implement. The section Manage Your Intellectual Property includes sample addendum to publishing agreements to allow the author to retain certain copyrights.

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)

SPARC has been at the forefront in the response to the serials crisis by actively supporting the creation of competitive non-profit and/or open-access alternatives to high-priced commercial journals/digital aggregations, advocating these alternatives to the various stakeholders, and leading awareness campaigns. Some key resources on this site are the Author Rights, the FAQ and information about becoming a SPARC member and/or partner.

Open Access Webliography

Written by Adrian Ho and Charles Bailey from the University of Houston, this webliography presents a wide range of freely available electronic resources (directories, e-journals, FAQs, mailing lists, and weblogs) related to the Open Access movement.