An Ethical Framework For Library Publishing 2.0

Begun in 2017, An Ethical Framework for Library Publishing 1.0 was produced in July 2018 by the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC). It articulated ethical considerations and provided concrete recommendations and resources for libraries to engage in ethical scholarly publishing. It focused on the topics of: Publishing Practice, Accessibility, DEI, Privacy and Analytics, and Academic and Intellectual Freedom.

As important as it was, it built upon the Core Practices identified by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) developed in 2017 and the IFLA Code of Ethics for Librarians and other Information Workers endorsed in 2012.

Now, five years later, an updated edition has been put forward. Structured using frames, statements, and associated guidance for each. If your library is contemplating any sort of scholarly publishing project, or already has a library publishing program, this new Ethical Framework For Library Publishing, Version 2.0 (released May 2023) should be read and taken into consideration.

Here at-a-glance are the frames and statements:

Frame 1: Library Publishing is VALUES-BASED

• Statement 1.1: Library publishers act in accordance with their stated and implicit values. Library publisher values determine library publisher actions and ethics.
• Statement 1.2: Library publishers’ values do not exist in a vacuum, but are informed by relationships to stakeholders and broader societal structures.
• Statement 1.3: Library publishers’ values will determine whether they can advance equitable, diverse, and inclusive access to the production and use of knowledge.
• Statement 1.4: Library publishers inherit a specific set of declared values from their professional domains, librarianship and publishing.

Frame 2: Library Publishing is both LIBRARIANSHIP and PUBLISHING

• Statement 2.1: Library publishers inherit the characteristics and structural inequities of both domains.
• Statement 2.2: Library publishers act at all points on the scholarly communication continuum: as creators, curators, distributors and custodians of scholarship.
• Statement 2.3: Library publishers are uniquely positioned in the academy to influence communities and individuals at multiple levels and can use that position to influence structural change.
• Statement 2.4: Library publishers benefit from collaborative, standards-based environments.
• Statement 2.5: Library publishers hold power as gatekeepers that influence whose voices are validated.

Frame 3: Library Publishing is COMMUNITY-ORIENTED

• Statement 3.1: Library publishers interact with multiple communities and individuals within them, which may have aligned, competing or opposed needs or interests.
• Statement 3.2: Library publishers provide a platform for the voices of the communities in which they are situated.
• Statement 3.3: Library publishers impact the communities with which they engage.
• Statement 3.4: Library publishers are accountable to their communities.
• Statement 3.5: Library publishers create their own communities.

Frame 4: Library Publishing is DYNAMIC

• Statement 4.1: Library publishers adapt their practices as conditions change in libraries, in publishing, and in the wider world, with flexibility to choose their own pathways.
• Statement 4.2: Library publishers are constant learners.
• Statement 4.3: Because library publishers are uniquely positioned at the intersection of librarianship and publishing, they have a unique perspective on the functions of both fields, and create possibilities beyond them.
• Statement 4.4: Library publishing practitioners have a unique opportunity to influence the upheaval in scholarly communications and create new pathways forward for publishers, authors, editors, reviewers and readers alike.
• Statement 4.5: Library publishers are not bound by the same profit/growth imperatives as market-based publishers.
• Statement 4.6: Library publishers deserve joy.