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which was otherwise unavailable due to the reasons ranging from the non-availability of supplementary information (like unpublished reports and working papers, multimedia and audiovisual items, learning objects, other special item types, bibliographic references, datasets, lecture notes and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 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.

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. 

Resource-sharing through an inter-institutional repository

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 730-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Abrizah ◽  
Mohd Hilmi ◽  
Norliya Ahmad Kassim
Keyword(s):  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Institutional Repository ◽  
Teaching Resources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Digital Repositories

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to be concerned with the motivations and resistance among an institutional repository (IR) stakeholder – the Library and Information Science (LIS) academicians – with respect to Green Road open access publishing in an inter-institutional repository. Design/methodology/approach – The answers were identified from 47 LIS faculty from three library schools in Malaysia who reported awareness of what an IR is and having had experience in contributing resources to digital repositories. Data were collected using survey and interviews. Findings – The results highlighted the LIS faculty on their motivation to share their intellectual profile, research and teaching resources in an inter-institutional repositories and why the reluctance in contributing. The study reveals that the major motivation to share resources for those practicing self-archiving is related to performance expectancy, social influence, visible and authoritative advantage, career benefit and quality work. The major resistance to share scholarly research output through self-archiving in institutional repositories for those practicing self-archiving is concern on plagiarism, time and effort, technical infrastructure, lack of self-efficacy and insularity. Practical implications – Knowing what conditions predict motivation and resistance to contribute to IRs would allow IR administrators to ensure greater and more effective participation in resource-sharing among LIS academic community. If this resistance is addressed aptly, IRs can be of real benefit to their teaching, scholarship, collaborations, and publishing and to the community that they serve. Originality/value – The first study that has explored the ways LIS academics respond to a situation where knowledge sharing in academe has now been made mandatory through an IR and what makes them resist to do so.

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.

Business Model Developments

2021 ◽  
pp. 32-52
Author(s):  
Joost Kollöffel
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Business Model ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Academic Publishing ◽  
Academic World ◽  
Financial Feasibility ◽  
Predatory Publishers

Academic publishing is a 'need to have' process that is very important in the academic world. This chapter focuses on the business models that were/are/might be used to finance the processes and the innovation in scholarly communication. What sparked the serials crisis? Is Open Access publishing feasible? Why are there predatory publishers? Can scientometrics and altmetrics be made into saleable products? These types of questions are answered in this chapter, where the focus lies on the financial feasibility of the main processes that occur in academic publishing.

Academic opinions of Wikipedia and Open Access publishing

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Xiao ◽  
Nicole Askin
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Academic Publishing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
Academic Researchers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine academics’ awareness of and attitudes towards Wikipedia and Open Access journals for academic publishing to better understand the perceived benefits and challenges of these models. Design/methodology/approach – Bases for analysis include comparison of the models, enumeration of their advantages and disadvantages, and investigation of Wikipedia's web structure in terms of potential for academic publishing. A web survey was administered via department-based invitations and listservs. Findings – The survey results show that: Wikipedia has perceived advantages and challenges in comparison to the Open Access model; the academic researchers’ increased familiarity is associated with increased comfort with these models; and the academic researchers’ attitudes towards these models are associated with their familiarity, academic environment, and professional status. Research limitations/implications – The major limitation of the study is sample size. The result of a power analysis with GPower shows that authors could only detect big effects in this study at statistical power 0.95. The authors call for larger sample studies that look further into this topic. Originality/value – This study contributes to the increasing interest in adjusting methods of creating and disseminating academic knowledge by providing empirical evidence of the academics’ experiences and attitudes towards the Open Access and Wikipedia publishing models. This paper provides a resource for researchers interested in scholarly communication and academic publishing, for research librarians, and for the academic community in general.

scholarly journals Open Science: Reinventing the Librarianship

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esa-Pekka Keskitalo ◽  
Tanja Vienonen
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Data Management ◽  
Data Storage ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
National Library ◽  
Institutional Repositories

Better utilisation of publicly funded research output is an aim of the Finnish Government. To reach that aim, the Open Science and Research (ATT) Initiative was launched in 2014. Lead by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the ATT Initiative has funded a number of projects that support good research data management, opening of research data, and Open Access in general. The Initiative also emphasises cooperation and interoperability nationally, and internationally.The National Library of Finland and other research libraries have an important role in the ATT Initiative. Libraries are in a good position to make meaningful contributions as they can repurpose their expertise on metadata, information retrieval, and collection management. They are finding new ways of collaboration and creating services in the fields of Open Access and Open Science.Libraries and other service providers should, first and foremost, respect the needs of research and researchers: science should always be the guiding force. But Open Access and Open Science do have an effect on how research is conducted and published. Therefore, it must be possible to have a critical look on conventional research practices. Increasing amounts of data, new technological possibilities, and new methods of analysis mean that old practices need to be revised. The more pronounced demands of interoperability and innovative re-usability drive for change, too. Of course, the funders are also very keen on cost-efficiency and measurable impact. There is a demand for harmonisation, collaboration, and shared infrastructures and services.The Open Scientific Publishing Project (TAJUA) in the National Library of Finland is a part of the ATT Initiative. The main focus of the project is to increase and improve the availability of Finnish research output. It comprises of several subprojects that build on the existing expertise of the Library, taking it to new directions. They deal withimproving the institutional repository infrastructure provided by the National Library, with special attention to organisations with restricted resources and basic demands;better guidance for institutional repositories on best practices in metadata creation, licensing, and in gathering statistics in a commensurable manner;a tool for easy creation of metadata about research datasets;improved persistent identifier services (ISNI, ORCID, URN, etc.);better understanding of economics of Open Access publishing, e.g. real level of APC, and recommendations for changes in publishing workflows; andrecommendations for ensuring long-term accessibility of scientific output.The TAJUA project complements others under the umbrella of the ATT Initiative. They deal with more efficient publishing workflows, data management planning, opening datasets, training and education on Open Science, and tools to enrich and work up open linked data. Existing national services on data storage, preservation, and dissemination will also be extended.Research libraries should not be shy about their knowledge and skills. With metadata being the new black, they can really make their mark on the world of Open Science.

scholarly journals Green Open Access in Lithuania

Knygotyra ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 141-161
Author(s):  
Fausta Kepalienė
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Text Documents ◽  
Scholarly Journals ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Scholarly Publications ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
Favorable Conditions

Favorable conditions for the development of open access have been created in Lithuania: in the absence of scholarly commercial publishing, some scholarly journals in 1999 were already freely available on the Internet. eLABa, in 2011 launched as a national repository, laid the foundation for the development of “green” open access in Lithuania. Currently 13 repositories in Lithuania are maintained and various legal acts related to the implementation of open access in the country have been adopted. The aim of this article is to analyze how “green” open access is being developed in Lithuania in terms of infrastructure, regulation, and implementation. International, national, and institutional documents regulating the implementation of open access were analyzed using the document analysis method. The analysis showed that a legal environ­ment which complies with the provisions of international documents regulating open access has been formed. In the analyzed documents, the authors of Lithuanian scholarly publications are required to submit their peer-reviewed publications to eLABa or another specified reposi­tory within a specific period. This requirement, as shown by the analysis of statistical indicators of the national repository eLABa, is fulfilled to a very small extent. Only 3.4% of all scholarly publications for which metadata had been submitted to eLABa were uploaded as full text documents at the end of 2019. It means that scholars provide biblio­graphic data on publications to eLABa, but upload only a small part of the full-text documents to it. One of the reasons for the low level of activity in promoting scholarly publications to eLABa could be that most Lithuanian scholarly journals are open access in nature and are already publicly available. Also, uploading a full-text scholarly publication to a repository, not just registering it, does not have a direct impact on the at­testation of the researchers at most universities in Lithuania. However, the low use of institutional repositories as a channel for publishing scholarly publications is a common problem not only in Lithuania, but also in other countries. There is a global trend of subject repositories being used for the dissemination of full-text scholarly publications, while institu­tional repositories – for providing bibliographic information on research output and uploading student works. This situation, where only a very small proportion of all registered scholarly publications are uploaded to institutional repositories, does not allow scientific institutions to ensure the long-term preservation of scholarly works. In general, it can be seen that the debate on open access and, at the same time, the way to imple­ment “green” open access, is becoming more and more concrete, focusing on specific, practical issues. Instead of considering whether open access is needed, discussion is moved on to the question of what measures should be taken to address the lower-than-expected scholars’ involvement in the implementation of open access publishing. Therefore, the research of scholars’ open access publishing behaviour is important in order to better understand the needs of authors for the dissemination of open ac­cess scholarly publications. In the case of the implementation of “green” open access in Lithuania, it is important to find out what determines the choice of the scholars to provide or not publications to eLABa and / or international repositories as well as to investigate if there is a need to create Lithuanian subject-based repositories.

Institutional repositories in Africa: Regaining direction

2021 ◽  
pp. 026666692110154
Author(s):  
Usman Ahmed Adam ◽  
Kiran Kaur
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Current Status ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Widespread Implementation ◽  
Typical Performance ◽  
The Status ◽  
Global Access ◽  
And Cluster Analysis

Institutional repositories are powerful tools to facilitate global access to intellectual output by members of the institution, particularly in assisting them to preserve and maximize access to their research output globally. This exploratory study of the status of institutional repositories implementation in African countries using the global Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and Transparent Ranking: All Repositories by Google Scholar, reports on the operational status and the performance of repositories. Factor analysis and cluster analysis are used to analyze the operational level of institutional repositories in African countries. The analysis showed that the typical performance of institutional repositories remains below average. The possibility of global open access to research results through institutional repositories in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Algeria, Sudan, and Egypt appeared to be relatively more feasible than other African countries. This study concludes that many organizations, institutions, and societies spend great efforts in support of open access implementation in Africa, however, the widespread implementation of institutional repositories is still very slow paced, and the performance of the implemented repositories was below expectation. Suggestions for regaining the intended direction of African institutional repositories are given based on the current status.

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