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Outline – Synergies Business and Sustainability Plan Rowland Lorimer 5 of 11
opportunities for a richer representation of researcher and hence a transformation in the
nature of knowledge. It is this last point that is most persuasive in justifying investment in
the technological modernization of research knowledge publication and dissemination
that Synergies represents. We will come to know our world through different forms and
symbols and that world will be different.
Current Realities in Scholarly Communication: An Environmental Scan
The creation and communication of the research record, and the resulting formation of
research communities, has been vested primarily with scholars and their associations and
facilitated by universities. The following describes those involved and their roles.
Responsibility for the research record has been taken up at least eight categories of
participants in a shared fashion. The roles of eight participants are as follows:
1. Disciplinary associations found, organize, and oversee the operations of journals.
2. Scholars, acting alone or in groups;
a. found, organize, and oversee the operations of journals;
b. volunteer as editors and on editorial boards;
c. pay membership dues to associations for which members receive a
subscription to the association journal;
d. subscribe to journals;
e. conduct research into and make innovative contributions to the scholarly
publishing process.
3. Universities that employ academic editorial scholars contribute by:
a. allowing for such volunteerism;
b. providing subsidies in the form of
i. direct funding,
ii. course releases,
iii. space etc,
iv. office services, and
v. editorial assistance.
4. Research institutes, sometimes in conjunction with their universities, also provide
subsidies in various forms for production.
5. Research funding agencies provide direct funding to journals and/or indirect
funding to authors that is passed on to journals.
6. Libraries act as collection-building agents, provide access, and preserve the
record and thus act as representatives of users-over-time.
7. University students contribute
a. through the purchase of course packs where the route of the funding is
often through Access Copyright. Relatively rare cases of student
subscribers also exist; and
b. by acting as assistant editors and fulfilling other roles in journal
publishing.
8. In cooperation with scholars, commercial organizations act as
a. for-profit publishers of journals;
b. aggregators who provide online publishing and/or dissemination services
and return small revenue percentages to journals; and
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