The Chronicle: Colloquy: The question

THE QUESTION

An agreement by the Association of American Universities and the Association of Research Libraries, announced last week, calls for radical changes in the "broken system" of scholarly publishing, and in the way faculty members' publishing is evaluated. Among other things, the agreement called for a shift in emphasis so that professors are judged more on the quality of their publications than the quantity. It also called for shifts that would speed up the review of publications so that they would appear more speedily, and the creation of alternatives to high-priced journals. Is the system of scholarly publishing broken? Will these changes fix it? What can be done to bring down the cost of journals? Can evaluations of faculty members be changed to discourage excess publication and to encourage quality?

For further information, see this background article:

Seeking a Radical Change in the Role of Publishing (6/16/2000)

: 7 RESPONSES (New 6/21)

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