Scholarly communication can be defined as “the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use. The system includes both formal means of communication, such as publication in peer-reviewed journals, and informal channels, such as electronic listservs.” (Association of College & Research Libraries, “Principles and Strategies for the Reform of Scholarly Communication 1,” 2003)
In an environment that is increasingly global, the ARL Scholarly Communication program encourages the advancement of effective, extensible, sustainable, and economically viable models of scholarly communication that provide barrier-free access to quality information. ARL also encourages initiatives for new modes of scholarship that demonstrate promise for the future.
The program currently has the following components:
- Analyze and characterize the dynamic and diverse system of scholarly communication and ensure a continuing dialogue among its many stakeholders
- Support selected new models and tools of scholarly communication
- Aggressively develop and pursue new strategies to advance fair pricing and the terms and conditions under which content is made available and preserved, including openness and transparency in contract agreements
Below are links to information and resources on key topics in scholarly communication.
ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication
The Association of Research Libraries and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) jointly sponsor the Institute on Scholarly Communication (ISC) to promote the development of library-led outreach on scholarly communication issues. The institute has hundreds of alumni forming a community that provides peer support and professional sharing of information relating to campus outreach.
Read more about the ARL/ACRL ISC »
Digital Scholarship Support
Research libraries support digital scholarship across disciplines in a variety of ways.
Read more about library support for digital scholarship »Marketplace & Licensing
Scholarly communication relies in part on the ability of research libraries to purchase published works. Traditional publishers are transforming their products and business models to accommodate digital publishing. The scholarly publishing market currently is a hybrid market involving both print and digital resources.
Read more about marketplace & licensing »
Publishing Models
New publishing models for scholarly communication are "new" because they offer a new genre (or form of presentation), business model, new way for authors and readers to communicate, approach to peer review, or some combination of these. One common factor is that they are Internet-mediated. New models also may combine forms of content that could not usefully be published together in print form. Research articles can be integrated with primary source material on a single site, commentary can be integrated into a monograph, learning objects, working papers, and a blog may be available from a single site.
Read more about publishing models »
Scholarly Impact
Quality and impact are two critical elements of the scholarly record. Research and scholarship is measured by both long-standing and newly developed techniques and tools.
Read more about scholarly impact »
TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)
The TOME initiative advances the wide dissemination of scholarship by humanities and humanistic social sciences faculty members by publishing free, open access, digital editions of peer-reviewed and professionally edited monographs.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is offering a series of free webcasts that present the findings from the latest 
