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Oct 22, 2007
University Park, PA—In today's academy, the formerly stable practices of research and academic publishing are in great flux. Researchers, publishers, and librarians have warned that the economics of scholarly publishing threaten the viability of core publication outlets—a foundation of the academy's promotion and tenure process. At the same time, technology is permitting new modes of research and methods for sharing, publishing, and validating it. How can these opposing realities be made to work towards improvements in scholarly communications?
A new series, "Shifting Ground: Changing Research and Publication," sponsored by the University Libraries' Colloquia Committee and the Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing, will examine the issues relevant to the changing nature of scholarly communications, including topics of intellectual property, promotion and tenure, the economics of academic publishing, and the impact of technology on the nature of research and publishing.
The first presentation in the series will look at "Publishing, Promotion, and Tenure: the Academy and Its Values," on Monday October 22, 2007, 2–3:30pm, Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library. Presenters Michael Bérubé, in "Required Reading," and Diane Harley, in "Academic Values and Innovations in Scholarly Communication," will examine researchers’ value systems and their attitudes towards publication, promotion, and tenure. Bérubé’s talk will focus on recommendations for reforms to promotion and tenure systems by the Modern Language Association, which in 2006 called for a de-emphasis on the scholarly monograph and increased recognition of the legitimacy of a variety of scholarly forms, including new media. Harley will review research into the values of academics in a number of fields, and how these values influence their choices about publishing. Together the two presenters will address a range of issues regarding what counts for promotion and tenure, what has changed or needs to change, and what it will it take to promote such changes.
Michael Bérubé, the Paterno Family Professor in Literature at Penn State, was a member of the Modern Language Association (MLA) Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion in 2006. He is the author of six books to date, including, most recently, What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and "Bias" in Higher Education (W. W. Norton, 2006) and Rhetorical Occasions: Essays on Humans and the Humanities (University of North Carolina Press, 2006). Bérubé has written over one hundred and fifty essays for a wide variety of academic journals such as American Quarterly, the Yale Journal of Criticism, Social Text, Modern Fiction Studies, and the minnesota review, as well as more popular venues such as Harper's, the New Yorker, Dissent, The New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, the Nation, and the Boston Globe.
Diane Harley is a senior researcher at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the policy implications of integrating information and communication technologies into complex academic environments. Among her current research activities are the influence of academic values on scholarly publication practices and the integration of digital media in university research and teaching. Her research papers can be found at: http://cshe.berkeley.edu/people/dharley.htm
Discussion with the audience will follow the presentations.
Following the event, the presentation will be available via MediaSite Live at http://live.libraries.psu.edu/mediasite/Catalog and podcast link at www.libraries.psu.edu/odsp/
For more information, contact Mike Furlough, assistant dean for Scholarly Communications, University Libraries, at 814-863-5447 or mfurlough@psu.edu
Editor's Contact:
Catherine Grigor, 814-863-4240