Conference on Scholarly Communication Report on Proceedings April 30, 1997 Overview Caltech has taken an important leadership role in advancing the progress of scholarly communication. On March 25, 1997, it convened a 2 ½ day conference of university leaders to open a dialogue around key issues, to initiate planning for scholarly communication in the 21st century, and to consider what joint undertakings might be feasible or beneficial. The future of open, effective scientific discourse is being widely debated. And while projects exists in "digital libraries" and "electronic publishing", little, if anything, has been done to consider the fundamentals of how scholars communicate research results or how new network technology may be applied to enhance this process. The Caltech conference, co-sponsored by the Engineering Information Foundation, endeavored to move the research community from debate to action. Until recently the process of scholarly communication among research universities has been so fundamental as to be taken for granted. Now, the emergence of powerful electronic technology, coupled with the explosion of new knowledge has stimulated concern for the future exchange of research information. Conferees actively worked towards devising effective, forward-looking solutions.
Conference Outline The challenge put before the scholars and university decision makers who gathered at Caltech was to define the basic elements of research communication, and to devise strategies leading to a new model. Selected leaders in the debate about the future of scholarly communication from research universities and scholarly societies restated the central issues listed below in the opening presentations. The four speakers were invited from among those who are actively contributing to the published discussion of scholarly communication. Panels comprised university provosts and representatives from scholarly societies. Then the 55 conferees representing 29 universities participated in facilitated work groups to consider options for networked scholarly communication that would exploit emerging technologies beyond the print paradigm and current work on the digital library and at the same time could be broadly-based among research universities or within specific disciplines. Closing general discussions involved presenting proposals and reaching consensus on implementation strategies. Topics included:
The featured speakers were: Stevan Harnad, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Cognitive Sciences Centre at University of Southampton, UK: "Subversive Proposal: A New paradigm for Scholarly Communication." Cliff Lynch, Director of the University of California, Office of the President, Division of Library Automation: "Technical Considerations in Maintaining the Integrity of the Scholarly Record." Anne Okerson, Assistant, University Librarian at Yale University: "Intellectual Property Issues in the Electronic Age." Larry Hurtado, Professor, New Testament Language, Literature and Theology, in the University of Edinburgh: "Building Academic Consortia for Networked Scholarly Communication." The panel of university provosts included: David Aston, Rice University Stanley Chodorow, University of Pennsylvania Nelson Markley, University of Maryland Jeremiah Ostriker, Princeton University Charles Phelps, University of Rochester Robert Ringel, Purdue University Steven Koonin, Caltech, Moderator The panel representing the professional societies included: Martin Blume, American Physical Society Mark Daskin, Northwestern University Harry Gilmer, Scholar’s Press Charles Phelps, University of Rochester Richard Flagan, Caltech, Moderator The following notes were compiled from comments made during panel discussions and the issues and solutions addressed by the three work groups. Overheads prepared by work groups for the wrap-up general session are included.
Future Plans During the final session, attendees attained an informal consensus around the following strategic objectives. Anne M. Buck 4-30-97 |