Provosts From the Big Ten Academic Alliance Issue Statement on Academic Publishing and Advocating for a “Sustainable and Open Ecosystem of Publication”

From the Big 10 Academic Alliance:

We, the provosts of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, are committed to sustaining and advancing equitable modes of sharing knowledge. Our 14 institutions embrace individual mission statements that support the common good, equity of access, and the global impact and reach of our research and scholarship. Collectively, our institutions’ more than 50,000 faculty are supported by over $10 billion (2017) in research funding, and our institutions have similarly invested significantly in our capacity to further our missions to advance knowledge. Together, we produce roughly 15% of the research publications in the United States.

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With Big Ten libraries’ expenditures on journals exceeding $190 million, we recognize that our institutions are privileged in the level of access we provide our campuses, yet the status quo is not sustainable.

Demand for open access continues and has been furthered by the rise of open access publications, federal and institutional open repositories, and an insistence by public funders that research results must be widely available—that equity be fostered. While no current model offers a fully tested framework to recognize the intellectual and financial resources our universities contribute to publishing, it is incumbent on our institutions to advance more sustainable modes of funding publishing.

The Big Ten Academic Alliance will continue its advocacy for a sustainable and open ecosystem of publication. We believe the recent actions of the University of California and European institutions represent a critical pivot in that ecosystem. These and other similar efforts reflect growing momentum and urgency about the need for change. We believe the academic community must take action to better recognize and to rebalance the contributions that authors, institutions, and publishers make. Most importantly, the values of the academy toward the advancement of knowledge must prevail.

Read the Complete Statement (581 words)

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Funding, News, Open Access, Publishing