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

Open access theses in institutional repositories an exploratory…

Open access theses in institutional repositories: an exploratory study of the perceptions of doctoral students :

Introduction. We examine doctoral students’ awareness of and attitudes to open access forms of publication. Levels of awareness of open access and the concept of institutional repositories, publishing behaviour and perceptions of benefits and risks of open access publishing were explored.
Method. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through interviews with eight doctoral students enrolled in a range of disciplines in a New Zealand university and a self-completion Web survey of 251 students.
Analysis. Interview data were analysed thematically, then evaluated against a theoretical framework. The interview data were then used to inform the design of the survey tool. Survey responses were analysed as a single set, then by disciple using SurveyMonkey’s online toolkit and Excel.
Results. While awareness of open access and repository archiving is still low, the majority of interview and survey respondents were found to be supportive of the concept of open access. The perceived benefits of enhanced exposure and potential for sharing outweigh the perceived risks. The majority of respondents were supportive of an existing mandatory thesis submission policy.
Conclusions. Low levels of awareness of the university repository remains an issue, and could be addressed by further investigating the effectiveness of different communication channels for promotion.”

URL : http://informationr.net/ir/17-1/paper507.html

Use of Open Access Resources by the Engineering…

Use of Open Access Resources by the Engineering Students of Punjab (India) :

“This study presents the results of a survey that assessed engineering student’s familiarity with use of open access resources in Punjab (India). The survey was made through questionnaires and completed by 460 respondents. Respondents were generally familiar with open access sources including open access journals, institutional repositories and self-archived materials on the web. Respondents’ attitudes toward open access varied, but most agreed that open access resources are of high quality and that open access would benefit them. In helping researchers find open access information, more respondents had used open access journals than institutional repositories or self-archived materials. Some of the challenges faced by the student fraternity in accessing these resources have been enlisted and appropriate recommendations have also been given.”

URL : http://www.academicjournals.org/IJLIS/PDF/pdf2012/Jan/Sandhu%20%20and%20Daviet.pdf

Open Access at the University of Southampton Pushing…

Open Access at the University of Southampton. Pushing the boundaries and the art of the possible.
Case study
:

“At the University of Southampton researchers, academics, service providers and senior management have been working together for ten years in a partnership to underpin an “open” approach to research and learning resources based on the repository model.

Innovative research at the School of Electronics and Computer Science set out the technical building blocks for making research available on open access. As a next step, the JISC- funded TARDis project (Targeting Academic Research for Dissemination and Disclosure) successfully brought together internal departments – the Library, the University Computing Service and the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Research Group within Electronics and Computer Science. Together, they committed to support an institutional strategy for making scholarly communication both more visible and more accessible. This partnership approach remains key and has allowed Southampton to extend open access into other areas including the learning repository.

At institutional level the value of the research repository has been strongly identified with the University’s strategies for the RAE/REF, and with the institutional response to meeting funder mandates. The University of Southampton became the first university in the UK to adopt a formal requirement that all academic staff make access to their published research available online through the institutional repository. Senior management support has been crucial as has been the promotion of the benefits to the author. Institutional strategy often means less to individual academics and researchers than how the services provide benefits to them. It is therefore important to link open access to the research and learning process, and to the benefits of increasing visibility. A pragmatic approach combined with a strongly visible support service has underpinned the way in which open access has been developed institutionally at Southampton.

The University’s main priorities going forward are to increase the amount of open content by encouraging the direct deposit of postprints in the research repository and increasing the range of material across disciplines in the learning repository. In parallel Southampton will experiment with scoping options to link access to research data initially at metadata level.”

URL : http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/topics/opentechnologies/openaccess/institutionsandoa/southampton.aspx

A case study in openness Salford University …

A case study in openness: Salford University :

“A case study in institutional openness has just been published, focused on Salford University. Written by the Vice Chancellor and EOS Board member, Professor Martin Hall, the study describes the drive to openness and the benefits it brings to the University and its public. “The University aims to create economic and social value through innovative ways of working together. A key element of this is openness”, says Professor Hall.

In the paper, he develops the concept of a ‘Generic Open Access University’ and describes how the univeristy repository, USIR, is the core of intermediary agencies and a wide range of networked connections. “The open access repository is at the heart of this model, in the place that the library has occupied from the earliest days of the university”, Professor Hall says.”

URL : http://www.openscholarship.org/jcms/c_7273/a-case-study-in-openness-salford-university