Joint Statement
on Scholarly Communications

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Joint Statement on Scholarly Communications

Modern scholarly communication is a complex system with a simple purpose: to provide the means by which the human knowledge and insight of the past may be preserved and shared in order to nourish the development of new ideas in the future. The members of the Association of American University Presses and the Association of Research Libraries all play a role in this vital and dynamic system, and we are united in our dedication to its purpose.

AAUP members have contributed to the fulfillment of this purpose by:
• working with and encouraging scholars in the development of their work;
• selecting, with the help of peer-reviewers and editorial boards, those manuscripts for publication that meet high standards of research and analysis;
• helping authors clarify and communicate their ideas;
• preparing manuscripts for publication in the appropriate medium and format, be it book or journal, print or electronic, single item or database; and
• distributing their publications to libraries, bookstores and scholars throughout the world.

At the same time, ARL members have contributed to the fulfillment of this purpose by:
• acquiring collections of scholarly books, journals and other materials of research value, both print and electronic, across a broad range of subjects and disciplines;
• organizing their collections for easy discovery and use;
• preserving their collections and providing long-term access to them;
• providing professional guidance to the resources available to scholars, in other libraries and special collections throughout the world; and
• instructing students in how to evaluate the quality of the many information resources available to them.

We are in a period of transition in scholarly communication brought about by economic stresses on libraries, presses, and higher education and by opportunities for new roles among all of the participants in the system created by new technologies. What each library and press does complements the work of the other and completes the cycle of scholarly communication, for readers without access to scholarship are as crippled as scholarship without access to readers. As their roles evolve, AAUP and ARL will work together to create a strong system of communication for scholars of the future so that knowledge may continue to advance, for the good of all.

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Association of American University Presses

Association of Research Libraries