Scholarly communication is a term which has become increasingly common in the academic information profession over the last few years but what does it actually mean? The terms scholarly communication and research support are often used interchangeably but they mean things in different contexts. 

The Office of Scholarly Communication at Cambridge defines scholarly communication as “the process of academics, scholars and researchers sharing and publishing their research findings so that they are available to the wider academic community and beyond”. This definition outlines scholarly communication as a process – the ways in which researchers share the outputs of their projects. For some this process begins with publication whereas for others it begins much earlier and includes stages such as planning the project and managing the information collected. In contrast research support is the help that is offered to those undertaking the research process. This is often associated with a wider range of help for the whole research process and it can come from many sources such as a PhD supervisor, a research office or the library. 

This distinction is important as how your institution defines scholarly communication and research support will influence the type of service that it offers. For example, a library which defines scholarly communication as beginning upon publication may only offer support from this stage onwards.