The institutional/disciplinarydivide, a barrier to open

access

Danny Kingsleydanny.kingsley@anu.edu.au

Open Access CollectionsBrisbane 14 February 2008

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dann

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auWhat is a repository?

• This talk is about Institutional Repositories

• Digital repositories are "usually considered tomean a place where one deposits (hencerepository) born-digital objects such as peer-reviewed research manuscripts for the purposeof providing open access.”

• Arthur Sale - http://eprints.comp.utas.edu.au:81/archive/00000222/

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auRepositories in Australia

• Of 38 Australian universities - 22 have repositories• Five have < 1000 entries• Thirteen have 1000 -5000 entries• Four left:

Adelaide University >14,000Qld University of Technology > 9000 itemsGriffith University > 13,000 itemsSwinburne University of Tech > 6000 items

Ref: OpenDOAR - http://www.opendoar.org/ and privatecorrespondence

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auConvincing people to use

repositories

• In the past -• ‘Build it and they will come’

• Currently -• ‘If only they understood’

• Future -• ‘How does this fit with current practice?’

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auConsider this

• A scientist working in a laboratorywith high tech equipment

• A historian whose research is textbased

• Are these the only differences in theway they work?

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dann

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auResearch design

• 43 interviews at UNSW & ANU• October 2006 - April 2007

Chemists Sociologists Computer Scientists

• Interviews analysed using GroundedTheory

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auResearch Question

• What are the barriers to the uptake ofOpen Access publication options inAustralia?

• Sub-questions explored here: How do you keep up with the literature? Why do you publish?

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auDisciplinary Differences

• Publication patterns are just thetip of the iceberg when itcomes to the differences indisciplines.

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auInformation seeking

• Undirected searching - Is like navigating a maze

Directed searching -Is like following a map

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auKeeping up

• Chemists - Systematic reading

• Computer Scientists - Specific conferences

• Sociologists - Serendipity

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auDirected searching

• Chemists - use databases, lessgeneral searches

• Computer Scientists - almostexclusively use Google

• Sociologists - snowball (a mixture oftext and paper)

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auSub-disciplines are very

small

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auColleagues are scattered

• Those 10 people are unlikely to workin the same building, institution oreven country as each other

• Undergraduate courses are partly thereason

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auMarketing 101

• What is your repository for?

• This will tell you what ‘message’ youare trying to sell

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auInstitutional/disciplinary

divide

• Institution: Promotional reporting

• Government: Grant applications

• Community: International reputation

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auInstitutional/disciplinary

divide• “there is a tendency – which a proper

attention to disciplinary cultures can helpto check – for administrators to lay downuniform specifications to be observedacross the whole range of departments,even where these are clearlyinappropriate”

• T. Becher (1994) ‘The Significance of DisciplinaryDifferences’, Studies in Higher Education, 19, 151-161

Dan

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auInstitutional/disciplinary

divide• “there is a tendency – which a proper

attention to disciplinary cultures can helpto check – for administrators to lay downuniform specifications to be observedacross the whole range of departments,even where these are clearlyinappropriate”

• T. Becher (1994) ‘The Significance of DisciplinaryDifferences’, Studies in Higher Education, 19, 151-161

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auHow I view my research

communities

Economics

Sociology

Science

communication

CopyrightLaw

BibliometricsInformation Management

My research

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How the ANU views me

Economics

Sociology

Science

communication

CopyrightLaw

BibliometricsInformation Management

My research

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auMarketing 102

• Innovations (repositories) are more likely tobe adopted if they are perceived to have:

relative advantage (to status quo) Compatibility (to status quo) trialability observability less complexity .

• Everett Rogers (2003) Diffusion of Innovations, NY,The Free Press

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auLoyalty

• Academics have a greater loyalty totheir research ‘community’ than theydo to their institution.

• Invisible colleges vs institutions

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auCase Study - Economists

• RePEC - Research Papers in Economics- http://RePEc.org

• IDEAS - Internet Documents inEconomics Access Service –http://ideas.RePEc.org/

• QUT ePrints

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auWork out your message!

• Most institutional repositories exist toserve institutional and funding bodies

• Perhaps it is up to the institution NOTthe individual to populate it?

• If it is about open access - chooseyour targets

Dan

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auFurther discussion

• Please feel free to contact me:• danny.kingsley@anu.edu.au

• http://cpas.anu.edu.au/researchprojects/_danny_kingsley.php