Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing launched!

The Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing (SCP) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries was established in 2005 in response to a faculty senate resolution addressing the unsustainable financial demands of academic publishing, the desire by faculty to retain and better manage usage rights to their research output, the interest of the libraries to explore innovative, alternative publishing methods, and the rising national call to maximize access to and, therefore, the impact of publicly-sponsored research. Under the direction of the Library Services Council and the leadership of the program coordinators, Wayne Hayes and Julie Schneider, the SCP will work to identify and assess the research output of the UW campus, organize activities to archive locally created scholarly content in relevant local and national repositories, assist faculty in limiting the transfer of their copyrights by modifying publisher contracts, and influence scholarly publishing by advocating the creation of open access journals and locally produced digital publications.