Strategic Access

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory J. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Scholarly Communications

AbstractThere is a revolution afoot in scholarly communication and it is called, Open Access. Whilst Gregory J Gordon is a strong proponent of Open Access, he believes many people are missing the point as more does not mean better, it only means more. Open Access has had a major impact on scholarly communications by reducing the traditional barriers to research. Unfortunately, this has compounded the issues of discovery. Institutional repositories, disciplinary repositories and multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional repositories and metrics such as downloads, citations, and Eigenfactor™ Score are new tools in the scholarly researcher's kit. Familiarity and comprehension of these tools will help scholars make efficient use of the overabundance of scholarly communications. This strategic access approach will ultimately result in greater precision.

Faculty Attitudes Towards Open Access Publishing, E-Print Servers and Institutional Repositories

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Wust
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Faculty Attitudes ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Impact Factors ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Etude Qualitative

This qualitative study investigates how faculty gather information for teaching and research and their opinions on open access approaches to scholarly communication. Despite generally favorable reactions, a perceived lack of peer review and impact factors were among the most common reasons for not publishing through open-access forums.Cette étude qualitative examine comment les membres du corps professoral recueillent l’information pour l’enseignement et la recherche, et leurs opinions envers les approches de la communication scientifique à libre accès. Malgré des réactions généralement favorables, le manque perçu de révision par les pairs et les facteurs d’impact comptent parmi les motifs habituellement évoqués pour ne pas publier sur ces tribunes à libre accès. 

scholarly journals Researchers' perspectives on open access scholarly communication in Tanzanian public universities

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
F.W. Dulle ◽  
M.K. Minishi-Majanja
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Recognition Quality ◽  
Dissemination Of Research ◽  
Research Findings

This research explored the awareness, usage and perspectives of Tanzanian researchers on open access as a mode of scholarly communication. A survey questionnaire targeted 544 respondents selected through stratified random sampling from a population of 1088 university researchers of the six public universities in Tanzania. With a response rate of 73%, the data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The study reveals that the majority of the researchers were aware of and were positive towards open access. Findings further indicate that the majority of researchers in Tanzanian public universities used open access outlets more to access scholarly content than to disseminate their own research findings. It seems that most of these researchers would support open access publishing more if issues of recognition, quality and ownership were resolved. Thus many of them supported the idea of establishing institutional repositories at their respective universities as a way of improving the dissemination of local content. The study recommends that public universities and other research institutions in the country should consider establishing institutional repositories, with appropriate quality assurance measures, to improve the dissemination of research output emanating from these institutions.

Scholarly communication in the digital environment

2005 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 481-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Rowlands ◽  
David Nicholas
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Disciplinary Culture ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Journal Publishing ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Regional Location

PurposeThis paper aims to make a substantial contribution to the ongoing debate about the potential of open access publishing and institutional repositories to reform the scholarly communication system. It presents the views of senior authors on these issues and contextualises them within the broader framework of their journal publishing behaviour and preferences.Design/methodology/approachA highly representative online opinion survey of more than five and half thousand journals authors, building on an earlier (January 2004) benchmarking study carried out by CIBER.FindingsSenior researchers are rapidly becoming more informed about open access publishing and institutional repositories but are still a long way off reaching a consensus on the likelihood that these new models will challenge the existing order, nor are they in agreement whether this would be a positive or a negative development. Disciplinary culture and, to a less extent, regional location are key determinants of author attitudes and any policy response should avoid “one‐size‐fits‐all” solutions.Research limitations/implicationsThis survey reflects the opinions of senior corresponding authors who have recently published in a “top” (i.e. ISI‐indexed journal) with 95 per cent confidence. The findings should not be generalised to represent the views of all authors in all journals, open access or otherwise.Originality/valueThe journal publishing sector is facing enormous challenges and opportunities as content increasingly migrates to the web. The value of this research is that it provides an objective, non‐partisan, assessment of the attitudes and opinions of more than 5,000 senior researchers, a key stakeholder group, and thus contributes both to the development of public policy as well as more realistic commercial strategies.

scholarly journals Scholarly Communication Practices in Humanities and Social Sciences: A Study of Researchers’ Attitudes and Awareness of Open Access

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhuva Narayan ◽  
Edward J. Luca ◽  
Belinda Tiffen ◽  
Ashley England ◽  
Mal Booth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Change Perceptions ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Journal Impact

Abstract This paper examines issues relating to the perceptions and adoption of open access (OA) and institutional repositories. Using a survey research design, we collected data from academics and other researchers in the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) at a university in Australia. We looked at factors influencing choice of publishers and journal outlets, as well as the use of social media and nontraditional channels for scholarly communication. We used an online questionnaire to collect data and used descriptive statistics to analyse the data. Our findings suggest that researchers are highly influenced by traditional measures of quality, such as journal impact factor, and are less concerned with making their work more findable and promoting it through social media. This highlights a disconnect between researchers’ desired outcomes and the efforts that they put in toward the same. Our findings also suggest that institutional policies have the potential to increase OA awareness and adoption. This study contributes to the growing literature on scholarly communication by offering evidence from the HASS field, where limited studies have been conducted. Based on the findings, we recommend that academic librarians engage with faculty through outreach and workshops to change perceptions of OA and the institutional repository.

Scholarly communications competencies: open access training for librarians

2015 ◽  
Vol 116 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 397-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia E Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Professional Organizations ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Scholarly Communications ◽  
Communication Competencies ◽  
Limited Opportunity ◽  
Training Opportunities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe one example of an academic library using existing internal expertise and targeted events to provide training for liaison librarians in support of new scholarly communication initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – This article presents a case study of how a medium-size academic library without a designated scholarly communications librarian or office presented a series of open access (OA) training opportunities for the liaison librarians in preparation for the official launch of the institutional repository and the campus’ inaugural participation in OA week. Findings – The multiple opportunities to engage with the topics in diverse ways resulted in librarians being more comfortable with discussing OA with their departmental faculty. Opinions of OA were changed as a result of attending the events. Participants found the activities to be useful and were engaged enough with the topic to ask for specific areas where they would like more training opportunities. Look to other colleagues both on campus and in the broader region to tap their expertise or explore professional organizations or free webinars. Taking the initiative to organize events that require minimal effort can have a big impact. Practical implications – Librarians have limited opportunity for in-depth training to gain new competencies and re-tool their skills to match current demands; this article demonstrates that utilizing internal expertise to provide a variety of training can positively impact participants’ attitudes and confidence. Originality/value – This article presents methods and rationale for librarians to facilitate similar professional development opportunities for building new scholarly communication competencies in support of the emerging research and scholarly publishing trends.

The role of institutional repositories in developing the communication of scholarly research

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 163-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Mary Marsh
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Perceived Barriers ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Research Information ◽  
Scholarly Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Institutional Repositories

Purpose – This paper aims to uncover the central purposes of institutional repositories, how developments are being affected by policies and researcher behaviour and also what services and approaches are appropriate in supporting repositories from those partners involved in scholarly communication with a particular focus on services that support the publication of research. Design/methodology/approach – The research reviews the literature and current practices within higher education with regard to the core purposes of institutional repositories, the possible causes of low population of repositories in some institutions and subject disciplines, how this is being addressed and likely future developments. A qualitative survey using semi-structured interviews explores current best practices and tests the specific research questions that emerged from the literature review. Findings – The rate at which institutional repositories have grown in number has been very fast in recent years, but the population of repositories with research has been relatively slow. The research identified a number of reasons as to why the population of repositories was likely to accelerate in the future and have a more significant impact on scholarly communication. The main catalysts are: strengthening of national and funder policies that serve to both mandate open access (green or gold) and raise awareness of open access amongst faculty; the alignment of repositories with current research information systems within universities; and the development of metadata and open archives initiative harvesting that will improve discoverability and usage data. Research limitations/implications – As many of the issues around the development of repositories centre on the attitudes of faculty, it would also provide an interesting extension to the research to understand their views of the role of institutional repositories, too. Practical implications – The study presents a number of possible new ways of working by both information professionals and publishers to improve scholarly communication through the inclusion of research within institutional repositories and how perceived barriers could be overcome. Social implications – The study provides guidance on how the communication of scholarly research could be improved and reach a wider audience. This, in turn, will benefit researchers, corporate organisations and the public at large. Originality/value – The paper provides a review of current best practices in managing institutional repositories and identifies new ways of addressing some of the perceived barriers to populating repositories and the benefits for each stakeholder in the scholarly communication process.

Evolution of institutional repositories: Managing institutional research output to remove the gap of academic elitism

2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062110095
Author(s):  
Saimah Bashir ◽  
Sumeer Gul ◽  
Shazia Bashir ◽  
Nahida Tun Nisa ◽  
Shabir Ahmad Ganaie
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Learning Objects ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Supplementary Information ◽  
Academic Publishing ◽  
Institutional Research ◽  
Institutional Repositories

The article tries to highlight the evolution and conceptual framework of institutional repositories and their impact on the academic and scholarly circles in terms of better visibility, wider audience and earlier communication of research. The characteristics associated with the institutional repositories are also highlighted, which makes them stand out from the crowd in the family of open access scholarly platforms. The study is based on the examination and evaluation of the articles published across various peer-reviewed journals showcasing numerous dimensions of institutional repositories, ranging from their evolution to open scholarly acceptance. A preliminary search on institutional repositories was carried through two well-renowned indexing/abstracting databases of peer-reviewed literature, Clarivate Analytic’s, Web of Science and Elsevier’s Scopus. Search terms like institutional repositories, institutional research output, open access repositories, green open access, open access, open access publishing, open access initiatives, digital libraries, directory of open access repositories, open DOAR and scholarly communication were run across the databases for article retrieval, and the relevant studies were extracted accordingly. To make the study more comprehensive and current, the studies citing the retrieved articles were also consulted. The study reveals that the benefits associated with institutional repositories are manifold. They recounter users with the information which was otherwise unavailable due to the reasons ranging from the non-availability of supplementary information (like unpublished reports and working papers, multimedia and audiovisual items, learning objects, other special item types, bibliographic references, datasets, lecture notes and so forth) to the paywall/subscription models adopted by commercial channels of scholarly communication. Furthermore, the social, research and technological factors tend to be the main motivating factors for their wider acceptance by the scholarly community at global, national, organizational, and individual levels. They enhance the preservation of institutional research output with increased viewership and prestige apart from achieving a potential research impact. They, in a real sense, have abrogated the unilateral assault orchestrated by the commercial publishers on the author community by democratizing their scholarly voices via open and barrierless scholarly platforms. They are the future of the academic output of an institution/author as they perform successfully within the constitutional boundaries of scholarly and academic publishing, thus safeguarding the rights and claims of every academic actor. Given the importance of institutional repositories for a more democratic, barrierless and impactful information communication, they are for sure going beyond various scholarly circles by breaking the traditional and rigid walls of scholarly endeavours. The study presents a useful overview of the progression of the institutional repositories, their intended purpose and how they serve to fill the gaps in scholarly publishing and meet the needs of the wider academic community. The article summarizes in one place a concise overview of the use and impact of institutional repositories. The study is also an eye-opener for scholars interested in the research in the field of institutional repositories.

scholarly journals Abordagens, estratégias e ferramentas para o acesso aberto via periódicos e repositórios institucionais em instituições acadêmicas brasileiras | Approaches, strategies and tools for open access through journals and institutional repositories in Brazilian

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sely Costa
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Disciplinary Differences ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Open Access Journals

Resumo Este ensaio tem por objetivo discutir, de modo sucinto, o movimento do acesso aberto nos dias atuais, procurando-se identificar a diferença entre acesso aberto à literatura científica e acesso aberto ao conhecimento científico. A abordagem do acesso aberto à literatura relaciona-se com o processo de comunicação, enquanto o acesso aberto ao conhecimento científico, com a gestão do conhecimento. Recorre-se à literatura e à experiência pessoal no intuito de identificar e relatar estratégias e ferramentas que têm sido utilizadas em diferentes países e no próprio Brasil. A discussão fundamenta-se em três tópicos considerados basilares para o estudo e a prática com periódicos eletrônicos e repositórios de acesso aberto, que são: as diferenças disciplinares, o sistema de comunicação científica e os modelos de gestão do conhecimento. Parte-se do pressuposto de que as diferenças disciplinares devem nortear as ações e decisões a respeito da criação e manutenção de revistas e repositórios. As primeiras, como veículos efetivos de comunicação científica. Os últimos, como, ferramentas eficientes de gestão do conhecimento. Palavras-chave acesso aberto à literatura científica; acesso aberto ao conhecimento científico; periódicos científicos eletrônicos de acesso aberto; repositórios institucionais; diferenças disciplinares; modelo de comunicação científica; modelo de gestão do conhecimento científico.Abstract This essay aims at briefly discussing the open access movement today, trying to identify the difference between open access to scientific literature and open access to scientific knowledge. Open access to scientific literature is related to the scholarly communication process approach, while open access to scientific knowledge concerns the knowledge management approach. Both the literature and personal experience are used as the basis for discussion, attempting to identify and report strategies and tools that have been used in different countries and in Brazil itself. The discussion is based on three fundamental issues for the study and practices with open access journals and repositories, which are disciplinary differences, the scholarly communication system and knowledge management models. The assumptions behind the discussion are that disciplinary differences should guide both decisions and actions related to creating and maintaining journals and repositories. Journals are to be approached as effective communication channels while repositories are to be considered as efficient knowledge management tools.Keywords Open access to scientific literature. Open access to scientific knowledge. Scientific and scholarly electronic journals. Institutional repositories. Disciplinary differences. Scholarly communication models. Scientific knowledge management.

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