Information Technology Reference
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proportion to the growth of scientific literature itself. Coates (2009) has
reflected on a knowledge overload: 'and so, we read indexes rather than
journals, abstracts rather than papers, review essays rather than books.
Awash in a sea of academic discourse and analysis, we look desperately
for an intellectual life-raft, all the while feverishly seeking to add to the
accumulated scholarly wisdom ourselves.'
Unfortunately the deluge of publications from the academic
community is set to increase as university administrators and funding
authorities place an arguably wrong emphasis on the value of
publication metrics and journal rankings to establish research-quality
frameworks, and thus funding. These metrics, however, can be
manipulated and lead to significant unforeseen changes in academic
scholarly communication and publishing practices, which is often not
anticipated by those who change the ground rules (Steele, Butler and
Kingsley, 2006).
Changes in publishing settings
The changes in economic settings from late 2008 onwards have raised
questions as to appropriate global models for the 21st century in areas
ranging from banking to the car industry. The anticipated demise of the
printed newspaper has occupied many column inches, both online and
in print, and now the same angst is prevailing in the publishing
industry (Engelhardt, 2008). Robinson (2009) has argued that 'this is
not to say that the topic is doomed. But publishers will surely have to
change the way they do business. . . . An industry that spends all its
money on bookseller discounts and very little on finding an audience is
getting things the wrong way round.' Most academic books, under
current models, have limited print runs, sales and, thus, audiences.
The first years of the 21st century have seen a very significant
development in open access to information. How this will play out in the
coming years in terms of the economics of scholarship and scholarly
communication will be an intriguing process. There may well be a
transformation in the traditional flows and costs of scholarly publishing
to rectify the situation whereby universities give away most of their
research and provide mostly free peer-review services towards the finished
product, which university libraries then buy back. The increasing
adoption of Open Access (OA) mandates by the UK Research Councils
