Changing Scholarly Communication

There are a growing number of efforts to change how scholarly communication works to make it more affordable (or freely available) and to make it easier for scholars to use information with minimal restrictions.

• The open access movement is making journal articles and other types of scholarly information freely available with minimal use restrictions
• Open access journals are freely available worldwide
• Institutional repositories and disciplinary archives provide free access to article e-prints and other information
• New journal publishing initiatives offer lower-cost versions of high-priced journals
• Some publishers provide free access to back issues after a time delay
• Government agencies are taking action to encourage or require authors to make e-prints available
• Author copyright agreements are becoming more liberal or authors are negotiating to retain rights