The Publishing Research Consortium (PRC) has announced that it will shortly be publishing its fifth Summary Paper. The paper compares the findings of a specially commissioned study on what authors want to do with their journal articles, and what they believe they are permitted to do by their publisher agreements, with re-analysed data from a recent ALPSP Scholarly Publishing Practice Survey on publishers' policies. To mark the Academic Publishing in Europe conference in Berlin, a preliminary report has been issued summarising the findings.
The ALPSP Scholarly Publishing Practice Survey provides an array of evidence about the current policies and practices of scholarly journal publishers. It shows how these practices have changed over time with comparisons with the survey results from 2003 and 2005. In addition, the report shows how publishers' policies have changed in response to advocacy groups and funding mandates.
The Publishing Research Consortium is a group of associations and publishers, which supports global research into scholarly communication in order to enable evidence-based discussion. The Consortium seeks to promote an understanding of the role of publishing and its impact on research and teaching.
