The Patchwork Mandate

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:07:45 +0000

As OA self-archiving mandates by research funders grow, here is Arthur
Sale's timely and useful strategy to help accelerate the complementary
growth of self-archiving mandates by universities and research
institutions:

        Sale, A. (2007) The Patchwork Mandate
        D-Lib Magazine 13 1/2 January/February
        http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january07/sale/01sale.html
        doi:10.1045/january2007-sale.

    Excerpts [interpolations added]:

    "This article is written mainly for repository managers who are at
    a loss as to what policies they (or their universities or research
    institutions) ought to deploy in order to ensure that most, if
    not all, of the institution's scholarly output is deposited in
    the institution's repository. In essence, there are only two pure
    policies:

        requiring (mandating) researchers to deposit, and

        relying on voluntary (spontaneous) participation, with or without
        encouragement...

    "A mandatory deposit policy will approach a capture
    rate of 100% of current research publications,
    though it will take a couple of years to achieve that
    goal. Figures of 60-90% can be expected in a short time.
    See... for some data on how mandates actually work...:

        Sale, A. The acquisition of open access research
        articles. First Monday, 11(9), October 2006.
        http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_10/sale/index.html

    "Voluntary deposit policies are known to achieve no greater deposit
    rate of current research than 30% and more usually around 15%...
    The evidence for this can be produced and is absolutely clear...:

        Sale, A. The Impact of Mandatory Policies on
        ETD Acquisition. D-Lib Magazine April 2006,
        12(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1045/april2006-sale

        Sale, A. Comparison of content policies for institutional
        repositories in Australia. First Monday, 11(4), April 2006.
        http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_4/sale/index.html

    "This short article describes a third policy that provides a
    transitional path between the two.

    "What is the patchwork mandate? Simply this:

    "Knowing that you have [not yet] been unable to convince the senior
    executives, you nevertheless personally commit to having a mandate
    across your institution.

    "You aim to pursue a strategy that will achieve an institutional
    mandate in the long term. (It is highly recommended that you register
    your intention to do this in ROARMAP so as to encourage other
    repository managers caught in the same dilemma.)
    http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/

    "Since you haven't been able to get an institutional mandate [yet],
    you work instead towards getting departmental (school/faculty)
    mandates one by one. Each departmental mandate will rapidly trend
    towards 100%, and little activism is needed to maintain this
    level....

    "Conclusion

    "I am convinced that the patchwork mandate strategy described
    in this article will work in most cases. It is being trialled in
    Australia, and although it won't achieve 100% deposit of content
    into the institutional repository instantly, it is a clear way to
    work towards that goal. You can even explain the patchwork mandate
    approach to your senior executives, and they probably won't stop
    you from trying it. They may even encourage you in your efforts.

    "Just remember that voluntary persuasion of individuals is known not
    to work beyond a pitiful participation level. Self-archiving needs
    to be made part of the routine academic duty, and this requires a
    policy endorsement of mandatory deposit by someone."
Received on Tue Jan 16 2007 - 04:36:56 GMT

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