How much does it cost, and who pays? : The global costs of scholarly communication and the UK contribution

Communicating the results of research is integral to expanding the frontiers of knowledge and understanding. How it is done has changed dramatically over the past few years, creating tension as the various groups involved in the process have come to terms with, and developed ways to exploit new technologies to maximize access to information resources. One of the difficulties in looking at this process has been the lack of reliable evidence about key features of the entire scholarly communications system. Therefore the Research Information Network (RIN) set out, in partnership with other key agents, to investigate the costs incurred at each stage. Since journal articles are by far the most important information outputs produced and read by researchers, the study Activities, costs and funding flows in scholarly communications (May 2008) examines the components of the process that relate to scholarly journals on both a global level and within the UK.