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* Scholarly Communications *

The latest in Schol Comm news!

What is Scholarly Communication (Schol Comm)?

Scholarly Communication may be considered as the ecosystem in which academic information propagates. Kara Malenfant defines it as follows: 

"[S]cholarly communication – understood as the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use – promotes a shared system of research and scholarship"*

Why does it matter to you? 

Scholarly Communication issues touch on some of the most important and emergent trends and crises in scholarship today, and offers tools that will make your life easier as an author, inventor, or citizen. A few relevant examples would be issues of maintaining your intellectual property rights, self-archiving your research, or staying compliant with national, state, or institutional mandates for data management and/or open access. Librarians are here to help make your work as accessible as you want it to be, and make your management of that work easier.

*Malenfant, K. "Integrating Scholarly Communication into Your Library" College & Research Libraries, vol. 71: no,. 1 (2010:Jan.)

What Schol Comm Services Does the Library Provide?

Institutional Repository

The library hosts respository.iit, a site where faculty, students, and staff are encouraged to deposit their work such as articles, and conference proceedings. The platform makes research more discoverable and accessible to the Illinois Tech community as well as the general public. 


Journal Hosting 

Galvin Library provides online publishing services for faculty members and graduate students, including peer-reviewed online journals, newsletters, and technical reports. We currently host the Journal of the SoReMo initiative.

To have your journal hosted through Galvin Library please email us at library@iit.edu. The Library provides journal publishing options through Open Journal Systems


Copyright Navigation 

Copyright plays an important role in universities as they are both consumers and creators of content that is governed by copyright. You can read more about copyright on our Finding Media Research Guide. Contact library@iit.edu for questions such as:

  • How do I retain copyright over my published material?
  • How can I make sure I’m following copyright law in my classroom?
  • What does my publisher agreement mean?  ​

Open Educational Resources (OER)

OER refers to educational materials that are in the public domain or are licensed for open use. These materials are free to use, adapt, and redistribute. If you are interested in learning more, or finding OER materials for your classes, check out our OER Guide and please contact your subject librarian


Citation Management 

The library offers training for the citation management software Zotero. Sign up for upcoming trainings, or check out our how-to guide.