On 10/02/2009 15:46, "Stevan Harnad" <amsciforum_at_GMAIL.COM> wrote:
Tomasz, now that you have voiced your own opinion, it
would be a good idea for you to read the background
literature on this topic. There you will find the large,
multidisciplinary and multinational author surveys
<
http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11006/> that were
conducted several years ago by Alma Swan and Sheridan
Brown, in which researchers did indeed voice their
opinion, and their opinion was that they would not
deposit until and unless it was mandated by their
institutions and/or funders, but that if and when deposit
was indeed mandated, 95% would deposit, and over 80%
would deposit willingly. This finding has since been
confirmed by others; and Arthur Sale has gone on to do
studies
<
http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/comp/project.asp?lProjectId=1830>
on authors' actual behavior, with and without a mandate,
to find that authors do indeed behave in accordance with
the opinion they voiced in the Swan/Brown surveys, with
their actual deposit rate approaching 100% within two
years of the adoption of a deposit mandate (but
languishing at the baseline 15% -- or 30% if incentives
and assistance are provided -- if deposit is not
mandated).
At the risk of seeming shamelessly to promote my own work, the other
formal studies that might be helpful to read are these:
Swan, A., Needham, P., Probets, S., Muir, A., Oppenheim, C., O'Brien,
A., Hardy, R. and Rowland, F. (2005) Delivery, Management and Access
Model for E-prints and Open Access Journals within Further and Higher
Education. A study funded by JISC and HEFCE.
http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11001/
Swan, A. and Awre, C. (2006) LINKING UK REPOSITORIES:
Technical and organisational models to support user-oriented services
across institutional and other digital repositories. SCOPING STUDY
REPORT.
http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/14000/
And the rationale for local deposit plus central harvesting is laid
out here:
http://optimalscholarship.blogspot.com/2008/07/here-there-or-even-everywhere
-where.html
Alma Swan
Key Perspectives Ltd
Truro, UK
Received on Tue Feb 10 2009 - 18:22:39 GMT