Anyone working in the information sector who has taken even a casual interest in developments in academic libraries over the last few years cannot have failed to notice the terms ‘scholarly communication’ and ‘research support’ appearing with increasing frequency. They suddenly seem to be everywhere, often linked with terminology such as open access, research data management, publication strategy and copyright transfer agreement. These all sound like terms information professionals should be familiar with but what do they actually mean and what is the general fuss all about?

This book attempts to answer these questions and more by exploring what those working in academic libraries really need to know about scholarly communication and research support. The increase in the availability of roles in this area is no coincidence but the result of a perfect storm of conditions, which has called into question the way in which scholarly research is published and shared. In an age of misinformation and fake news it is becoming increasingly important to promote access to high-quality research outputs such as those produced by universities, learned societies and other institutions worldwide so that people are able to make informed decisions. Those who are members of these organisations are able to access this knowledge but it is not so simple for others. Although the growth of the internet should help to democratise access to this type of information, in practice this is not always the case. Publishers are protective of the work they produce and often seek to restrict access by charging subscriptions or other fees to read the content. This results in a further inequality in access to information – hardly a step forward in knowledge sharing! Those who fund the projects which produce research outputs have questioned the current system for some time and many now mandate that outputs should be shared with a wider audience. This call for change is echoed by members of the public, who argue that they should be able to access research which in many cases they have funded through taxation, and those in the research community who are unhappy about the current system and its reliance on their (often free) labour. The abundance of new rules surrounding these changes and the increased workload they cause provide an opportunity for librarians to offer help and support to researchers, resulting in a visible increase in the roles advertised.