Cornell: Scholarship on Demand

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Of possible interest; this article is on the password protected part of
the Chronicle site:

<http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i26/26a02901.htm>

Cornell Tries a New Publishing Model: Scholarship on Demand
By SCOTT CARLSON

Cornell University has started a publishing venture that will provide
scholarly publications online free, offering readers the option to pay for
a printed copy. 

Officials at Cornell hope that the publishing model will be one that other
colleges will adopt, reducing their dependence on costly journals and
trimming the need for storage space.

The project, called the Internet-First University Press, is one of the
first to utilize DSpace, a free software tool designed by programmers at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to archive scholarly works. 

[SNIP]

Cornell is not the only institution toying with the idea of Internet
publishing. Columbia University and the University of Rochester are
working on similar Internet-publishing projects. And Jerome Yavarkovsky,
university librarian at Boston College, is leading an effort to start an
online press there. "There is a convergence of opportunity and need" in
scholarly publishing at the moment, he says.

Internet-First press is open to publishing the work of scholars from other
institutions, Mr. Cooke says. But he has greater hopes for passing along
programming and strategic help to other colleges and getting them to start
their own online presses.

Prices Needed

Cornell's project is still a work in progress, with some vital details not
settled. The price of the print-on-demand services, for one thing, has not
been determined. "We're still trying to sort that out," Mr. Cooke
says. Nor will he divulge the cost of the project. 

[SNIP]

One of the press's main challenges, Mr. Cooke says, is convincing faculty
members that the Internet model of publishing is just as valuable as
publishing in established journals. All of the professors who have signed
on so far are tenured, Mr. Cooke says, adding that he used his status as a
former dean of the faculty to win them over.

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