The eScholarship Repository

SummaryThere is a perceived need to find an alternative method for publishing as a result of a growing scholarly communication crisis. In response, the University of California has developed the eScholarship Repository, which offers their faculty a central location for depositing working papers, pre-publication scholarship, and research reports. It provides persistent access and makes the content easily discoverable for anyone with Internet access. The repository is a viable alternative publishing mechanism, and is a tremendous boon to users who want quick and inexpensive access to a wide range of scholarly material. Its ability to stem the tide of increasing journal prices or provide a replacement to current publishing methods for faculty in their efforts to attain tenure and promotion, however, depends upon the establishment of a peer review system similar to what is currently found in traditional publishing.