LIBRARIANS AND OPEN ACCESS
LIBRARY CONNECT SURVEY FINDINGS
Librarians, researchers and open access publishing: Survey Findings
This month, Library Connect sent a short survey to subscribers asking for input on how librarians and information professionals are helping to inform their researchers about open access publishing options. Download, benchmark, share some key data points and read additional comments below from your library peers around the world:
Additional thoughts on the library’s role in OA publishing and OA in general from survey open fields
- Offer OA journal and/or book publishing services
- Provide consultation and guidance on copyright and OA options
- Provide access to services and resources that help assess quality and impact of scholarship, from traditional bibliometrics to emerging altmetrics
- Marketing and promoting OA scholarship on campus
- Support and training of researchers around the issues of scholarly communication
- Collaborate with research office and related entities on OA policies and initiatives
“The issues are complex — metrics for OA journals, role of predatory OA, role of OA journals in helping or damaging tenure applications, cost and funding for it, etc. Not an easy thing to address.”
Another respondent outlined a three-step approach:
- Create a positive research environment that inspires our researchers to do excellent research.
- Make sure that their work will be freely available to the public by also creating an OA publishing fund.
- Organize informational and motivational sessions for institutional and faculty board members.
A survey respondent indicated their researchers were conflating paying an article publishing charge (APC) with "vanity" publishing, and that there was a lack of understanding of embargoes and copyright. Their researchers are uploading to ResearchGate instead of the institutional repository — not understanding that repository staff ensure compliance with publishers.
Additional ideas to promote OA from survey open fields
- Video interviews with scientists about open access
- Add links to open access resources on library website
- Use current awareness services, such as blogging and text messages
- Host legal activities about open access
- Create beautiful banners promoting OA publishing and place them in conspicuous locations for researchers to read
- Connect OA publishing with researchers’ personal career advancement/promotion
"At every opportunity librarians need to raise the issue, bring awareness, debunk myths, promote the option and show leadership.”
ASSOCIATION OF CARIBBEAN UNIVERSITY, RESEARCH AND INSTITUTIONAL LIBRARIES
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