Graduate students have an important stake in reforming scholarly publishing. As part of the research community, graduate students require access to scholarly publications both for research and to publish their own work.

A comprehensive solution to the scholarly publishing crisis will ultimately require the co-operation of faculty, librarians, university administrators, students and publishers. Open Access provides a model for facilitating the distribution and sharing of information, without the financial and legal barriers that are employed by for-profit journal publishers. Open archives have already been established at dozens of post-secondary education institutions across Canada, including Dalhousie University and McMaster University, and publish some of the most influential articles that are currently being distributed.

Endnotes

1. Monograph and Serial Expenditures in ARL Libraries, 1986-2006*. www.arl.org/bm~doc/monser06.pdf
2. Monograph and Serial Expenditures in ARL Libraries, 1986-2006*. www.arl.org/bm~doc/monser06.pdf
3. Financial Statistics of Universities and Colleges 2006-07. Canadian Association of University Business Officers.
4. Online or Invisible? Steve Lawrence. citeseer.ist.psu.edu/online-nature01/