Effective Practices and Strategies for Open Access Outreach: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

INTRODUCTION There are many compelling reasons to make research open access (OA), but raising the awareness of faculty and administrators about OA is a struggle. Now that more and more funders are introducing OA policies, it is increasingly important that researchers understand OA and how to comply with these policies. U.K. researchers and their institutions have operated within a complex OA policy environment for many years, and academic libraries have been at the forefront of providing services and outreach to support them. This article discusses the results of a qualitative study that investigated effective practices and strategies of OA outreach in the United Kingdom. METHODS Semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 individuals at seven universities in the United Kingdom in late 2015. Transcripts of these interviews were analyzed for dominant themes using an inductive method of coding. RESULTS Themes were collected under the major headings of “The Message”; “Key Contacts and Relationships”; “Qualities of the OA Practitioner”; and “Advocacy versus Compliance.” DISCUSSION Results indicate that messages about OA need to be clear, concise, and jargon free. They need to be delivered repeatedly and creatively adapted to specific audiences. Identifying and building relationships with influencers and informers is key to the uptake of the message, and OA practitioners must have deep expertise to be credible as the messengers. CONCLUSION This timely research has immediate relevance to North American libraries as they contend with pressures to ramp up their own OA outreach and support services to assist researchers in complying with new federal funding policies.

Getting Scientists Ready for Open Access: The Approaches of Forschungszentrum Jülich

“…The information presented at the research institutes during the events of "Open Access Week on Tour" was customized to meet the needs and wishes of each research institute in accordance with Dawson [10]. Each presentation was composed of three main modules as shown in Table 1.…”

Creating Institution-Wide Awareness of, and Engagement with, Open Scholarship

“…Knowing the "why" is key as "often, negative factors and positive factors coincide; one person's motivator is another person's barrier" (Otto, 2016, p.3). The importance of addressing the audience in a meaningful way is also noted by Cirasella (2017), Goger (2015), and Dawson (2018). When looking at the broader term of OS it is even more critical to address the audience in an engaging, clear, and informed way.…”

“…The literature around OS focuses heavily on the outreach done by librarians to better educate and engage with, predominantly, researchers. Open Access (OA) requires both outreach and education, yet many existing misunderstandings are major obstacles for individuals and institutions to overcome (Goger, 2015;Dawson, 2018). Further research highlights that these misunderstandings often relate to misconceptions, lack of familiarity with the topic, preconceived notions of what OA is, and a lack of time which all contribute to a resistance in engaging with library staff around these topics (Otto, 2016, citing: Yang & Li, 2015Creaser, 2010;Swan & Brown, 2004;Swan & Brown, 2005;Suber, 2012).…”

“…An important factor to acknowledge when discussing all forms of library outreach is the potential pushback librarians may face when conducting educational outreach on scholarly communication. Corbett (2009) and Dawson (2018) both note that academics may resent librarians or library programmes for trying to educate them on processes with which they believe they are already familiar. A further factor in the Australian landscape is that most librarians are not embedded in Schools or Faculties in the same way many of our North American colleagues are.…”

Using Outreach Weeks to Examine Labor, Assessment and Value in Open Advocacy

“…Moreover, as Dawson (2018) described, raising awareness of and engaging scholars about more open methods of research communication is a "perpetual challenge" (p. 1). Unlike other areas of librarianship, for which there are national and international standards of practice and excellence, scholarly communication outreach and open advocacy is highly contextual, with challenges and opportunities differing greatly by institution, discipline, career stage, and other variables (Dawson, 2018;Foasberg, 2015). It is also worth noting that the supervision of librarians or other staff members-experience that is often required for administrative or managerial positions-is not a common component of many scholarly communication positions (Thomas, 2013;Xia & Li, 2015).…”