I've deposited on E-LIS (
http://eprints.rclis.org/) a pre-print of an
article to be published on LIBRI, titled:
Academic staff use, perception and expectations about Open-access
archives: A survey of Social Science Sector at Brescia University
This is an abridged version of my master dissertation at New Castele
University.
Here is the abstract:
This study surveyed the academic population of the faculties of Economics
and Law of the University of Study of Brescia, Italy. The survey sought
to determine knowledge and use of Open-Access archives in the different
disciplines, and to verify the conditions stated by the authors to
participate in an Institutional Open-Access initiative. Other related
issues, such as authors' attitudes towards publishers' copyright policies
and role of the library, were investigated.
Research methods were based on triangulation approach, and consisted in a
Literature Review, Semi-structured interviews and a Questionnaire survey.
The response rate to the questionnaire was 57,9% (62 authors). Results
show that 44 percent (25/57) of the authors knows about the existence of
Open-Access initiatives and archives. Among the people who answered that
they were aware of the existence of Open-Access archives, only 4 percent
(1/25) affirmed they had already used them to deposit papers, while 33
percent (16/48), among those who declared to use materials free available
on the web, affirmed to have used an Open-Access disciplinary archive.
Sixty-one percent (41/62) of the respondents answered they were prepared
to personally archive their own scientific or educational material on
an institutional repository, once the conditions that they request have
been fulfilled There is no statistically significant association between
faculties of origin, professional status and knowledge about Open-Access
initiative or personal availability to self-archiving. Statistically
significant association between years of work in academia and personal
availability to self-archiving is not present, either. Only the
association between years of working in academia and knowledge about
Open-Access archives and initiatives reveals a leaning towards statistical
significance (p=0.06).
>From the study emerges the crucial role that authors play in the process
of diffusion of Open-Access initiatives, the need to compare the results
of this study with researches in other disciplinary fields and the role
that libraries can play for the enhancement of Scholarly Communication.
I hope it may be helpful. Any comment will be appreciated.
My best regards
Eugenio Pelizzari
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*
Eugenio Camillo Pelizzari Tel. 030 2988345
Biblioteca Centrale Interfacoltà Fax: 030 2988367
Università degli Studi di Brescia mailto:pelizzar_at_eco.unibs.it
Via Porcellaga, 21
25121 BRESCIA
http://www.bci.unibs.it
Received on Mon Jan 26 2004 - 13:50:11 GMT