VCU News: VCU Libraries unveils open-access publishing platform

"VCU Libraries has launched a digital publishing platform that is making thousands of scholarly articles, presentations, research findings and data produced at Virginia Commonwealth University available to the general public. The open-access platform, called VCU Scholars Compass, will serve as VCU's repository for the intellectual output of the university's faculty, researchers, students and staff ... So far, upwards of 4,100 papers and other scholarly materials have been uploaded to Scholars Compass, and have already been downloaded nearly 23,000 times ... In building its own publishing platform, VCU Libraries is embracing scholars' shift away from publishing their work in traditional peer-reviewed academic journals, which are often expensive and not easily accessible to the general public ... For libraries, he said, there is also a growing need to reduce the amount of money spent on peer-reviewed journal subscriptions. VCU Libraries, for example, spends roughly $8 million per year on acquiring journal subscriptions and related materials ... VCU Scholars Compass also will allow scholars to more easily make their research findings available to the public. Under a new federal law, which went into effect in January, the findings of roughly 60 percent of all federally funded research must be made publicly accessible within 12 months ..."