Open Access Key a new system for managing…

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Open Access Key: a new system for managing author publication payments :

“With the establishment of the ‘author pays’ scholarly publishing model and the increasing trend for open access mandates from research funders, have infrastructure and resources developed sufficiently to support the additional financial and time pressures that participants now face? Individual researchers, their universities and research funders, and the publishers themselves, all have a part to play in processing and managing individual fees. It appears there is a need from all participants in the industry to make provision to encompass the administration of the publication charges required by many open access publishers. Open Access Key (OAK) is a new global company with an innovative and cost-effective solution which could provide value to all parties involved in these transactions.”

URL : http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/alpsp/lp/2012/00000025/00000003/art00004

Evaluation of a Web Portal for Improving Public Access to Evidence-Based Health Information and Health Literacy Skills: A Pragmatic Trial

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Background :
Using the conceptual framework of shared decision-making and evidence-based practice, a web portal was developed to serve as a generic (non disease-specific) tailored intervention to improve the lay public’s health literacy skills.

Objective : To evaluate the effects of the web portal compared to no intervention in a real-life setting.

Methods: A pragmatic randomised controlled parallel trial using simple randomisation of 96 parents who had children aged

Results : Use of the web portal was found to improve attitudes towards searching for health information. This variable was identified as the most important predictor of intention to search in both samples. Participants considered the web portal to have good usability, usefulness, and credibility. The intervention group showed slight increases in the use of evidence-based information, critical appraisal skills, and participation compared to the group receiving no intervention, but these differences were not statistically significant.

Conclusion : Despite the fact that the study was underpowered, we found that the web portal may have a positive effect on attitudes towards searching for health information. Furthermore, participants considered the web portal to be a relevant tool. It is important to continue experimenting with web-based resources in order to increase user participation in health care decision-making.”

URL : http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0037715

Electronic resources usage by postgraduates at the University of Colombo: Identifying the critical success factors

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“E-resources have exploded in popularity and usage by helping users in retrieving accurate, relevant and timelyinformation as and when required for their learning and research needs. This case study was carried out at the University of Colombo to investigate the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) on e-resources usage of postgraduates. A questionnaire basedsurvey was carried out using 302 postgraduates belonging to seven faculties. Exploratory factor analysis with Verimaxrotation was employed to identify the CSFs on e-resource usage and multiple regression analysis was carried out todetermine the relationship of those identified factors with overall e-resource usage. Factor analysis identified nine factorswhich affect on e-resources usage. Among the nine factors, postgraduates identified “Technology” as the most critical factorin using e-resources. Library support, information literacy, computer competency, usefulness and user attitudes areidentified as other CSFs for using e-resources for their learning activities.”

URL : http://op.niscair.res.in/index.php/ALIS/article/view/31

Setting up an open access digital repository A…

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Setting up an open access digital repository: A case study :

“Setting up of institutional repositories has been gathering momentum in India and many academic and R&D establishments have made it mandatory to set up institutional repositories. This paper briefly details the work that has goneinto setting up and configuring the digital repository of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MOES). The repository has been setup using the free and open source software, GNU Eprints.org (http://eprints.org). Such a repository will not only help in thewider dissemination of the publications that emerge from the projects and programmes supported by the MOES, but it willalso serve as an information management system for the ministry.”

URL : http://op.niscair.res.in/index.php/ALIS/article/view/77

Open access central funds in UK universities …

Open access central funds in UK universities :

“This paper reports on the extent to which higher education institutions in the UK have set up central funds and similar institutionally co-ordinated approaches to the payment of open access article-processing charges. It presents data demonstrating that central funds have only been set up by a minority of institutions and that the number of institutions has not changed significantly between 2009 and 2011. It then explores the barriers to the establishment of such funds and discusses recent developments that might lower these barriers. Finally, it provides a case study of the development of the central fund at the University of Nottingham in the UK and considers the sustainability of such an approach.”

URL : http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/alpsp/lp/2012/00000025/00000002/art00005
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/20120205

The effects of open access mandates on institutional…

The effects of open access mandates on institutional repositories in the UK and Germany :

Purpose :
This research project explores the effects of institutional open access mandates on institutional repositories in Higher Education Institutions in the UK and Germany. Therefore, it analyses the experiences, opinions, and expectations of institutional repository managers from both countries.

Methodology : A thorough literature review and a questionnaire-based survey were conducted to gain background information regarding open access publishing, institutional repositories, and institutional open access mandates. Semi-structured follow-up interviews provide an in-depth insight into the views of institutional repository managers regarding the effects of institutional open access mandates. The results are presented thematically.

Findings : There is evidence that institutional mandates do have effects on institutional repositories in different ways, e.g. on content deposited and service provision. The effects vary according to the characteristics of repositories and the approach taken by institutions. The research results also indicate that the experiences of institutions with a mandate and the expectations of institutions without one are almost identical across both the UK and Germany, although the developmental context of institutional repositories and institutional mandates in these two countries are very different.

Impact : The findings of the dissertation are of interest for Higher Education Institutions considering the implementation of an institutional open access mandate.

Research limitations : The research was limited in the comparative analysis of the experiences of institutional repository managers as there are almost no mandates implemented in Germany. The limited time did not allow to follow-up further questions after the
interviews were transcribed and analysed. A study of larger scale, for example on European level, should be interesting.

Value : The value of this dissertation is the exploration of the effects of institutional open access mandates on institutional repository services, a neglected field within the vast research about open access publishing and mandates so far.”

URL : https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/9327

Institutional repository `eKMAIR’ establishing and populating a research…

Institutional repository `eKMAIR’: establishing and populating a research repository for the National University “Kyiv Mohyla Academy” :

“University libraries have an increasingly important role to play in supporting open access publishing and dissemination of research outputs. In particular, many libraries are playing a leading role in establishing and managing institutional repositories. Institutional repositories are, most often, Open Access Initiative (OAI)-compliant databases of a university or other research institution’s intellectual output, most typically research papers, although many other forms of digital media can also be stored and disseminated. Their main function is to provide improved access to the full text of research articles and improve retrieval of relevant research.
The National University “Kyiv Mohyla Academy” is a small-sized institution with approximately 3,000 students and 500 academic staff. Although it is a teaching-intensive university, developing research and knowledge-transfer capacity is a strategic priority and four research institutes have been established, with further research activity going on in the academic schools and research centres.”

URL : http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.2434