Academic authors: research on Open access archives

From within the academic community today, ever more insistent calls are coming for changes in the distribution of scientific communication, with a subsequent development of powerful international pressure movements. A paradoxical aspect characterises the crisis in which scientific communication lies: the community of scientists and researchers who produce (mainly thanks to public financing) this specific type of literature, transfers its material to publishers, free of charge, but when it tries to have access to this production, provided at no expense, it encounters considerable problems of access. One of the proposals advanced to resolve this situation is that academic authors self-archive the fruits of their research on freely available institutional or subject based archives, freely available and which are interoperable.  New “open source” software, which are numerous, and free initiatives enable the realisation of all this and guarantee the total availability and easy research of scientific articles registered on a number of archives by the authors. It is argued that this model, amongst other things, is able to increase both the visibility and the impact of the research and speed up the entire process divulging the scientific information.

This questionnaire intends to collect the opinions and eventual experiences of the academic authors in the faculties of Economics and Law at the Università degli Studi di Brescia regarding the themes characterising problems of free access and self-archiving. I would be most grateful if you could find the time to fill in the questionnaire and return it to the Director of the Central Inter-Faculty library. The questionnaire is anonymous and the answers will be used in the strictest of confidence.

A – About you…

 

  1. Which department do you belong to or are you connected with?

q       Business management

q       Quantitative methods

q       Economics

q       Jurisprudence

q       Social studies

 

  1. What is your title?

q       Full Professor

q       Temporary Professor

q       Associate Professor

q       Contract Professor

q       Supply Professor

q       Researcher

 

  1. What is your discipline?

 

 

 


  1. For how long have you been working in the academic field?

q       5 years or less

q       6-10 years

q       11-15 years

q       More than 15 years

 

B – Your scientific output

 

  1. Approximately how many articles have you published in your career?

 

 

  1. On the whole, do you assign your copyright to publishers in order to get published? 

 

  1. If you do not assign copyright, what do you normally do?

q       I sign publishers’ exclusive licence agreement

q       I amend the publishers’ copyright assignment form and return it.

q       Other

Please specify?

 


 

 

  1. Have you ever made your scientific or teaching material freely available on the web?

 

  1. If you have replied “Yes”, where have you made such material available?

q       On the department site

q       On my site or on my personal web page

q       On a freely available disciplinary archive (such as ArXiv, CogPrints or Repec)

q       On freely available electronic journals or conference proceedings.

q       Elsewhere

Can you specify?

 

 

 

6.      If you already know of the Open access initiatives, can you say how you know of them?

q       Through literature related to my profession

q       Through colleagues

q       Through literature not related to my profession

q       I don’t know about it

q       Other

Can you specify?

 

 

 


7.      What would you consider to be acceptable use of any articles YOU made freely available on the web?

I would agree to the following uses…

Activity

For example…

…freely

…with limits or conditions

…not at all

Display

e.g. May be viewed on the screen







Print, save, copy

e.g. May be printed, saved to disk  with no limit on number of copies.







Modify

 

e.g. May be translated or a derivative work created







Excerpt

e.g. A short passage may be quoted







Annotate

e.g. Editorial or peer commentary may be inserted







Aggregate

e.g. May be compiled into an anthology







 

8.      What restrictions or conditions would you want to place on the use of the works that YOU make freely available on the Internet?

Restrictions

For example

Please select as many as apply

No restrictions

e.g. Can be used by anyone for any purpose, without limit



For personal use only

e.g. User cannot distribute copies to others



For use by certain groups

e.g. Only by course teachers



Only for certain purposes

e.g. Teaching, research but not commercial use



Only available for a certain period of time

e.g. Must be removed after 3-5 years



Copies must be exact replicas of the original text

e.g. The text must not be altered in any way.



Copies must be in the same format as the original

e.g. Only PDF copies can be made



Conditions

For example

Please select

No conditions

e.g. Can be used in any way, without the need to register



Users must register

e.g. With a service provider



Usage tracking

e.g. All use (ex. downloads) of your article should be tracked



 

9.      Are there any conditions or restrictions that you would want to place on your works that are not listed above?

 


If yes, can you specify?

 

 

 

 

C – How do you use other authors' scientific output?

 

1.      Have you used other authors’ scientific works that have been made freely available on the web?

o      Yes

o      No

 

2.      If “Yes”, which archives, services or sources have you used to access such works (Select as many as apply)? 

q      Author’s web page

q      The department’s web page

q      An archive run by an institution 

q      A disciplinary archive

 

3.      For which purpose did you use these works?

q      To prepare an article

q      For my teaching activities

q      For personal interest, knowledge or culture

q      Other

Please specify here below:

 

 

 


4.      When you use OTHER AUTHORS’ freely available scientific works, you would expect to be able to:

I would expect to be able to use freely available works in the following ways…

Activity

For example…

…freely

…with limits or  conditions

…not at all

Display

e.g. View it on screen







Print, save, copy

e.g. Print copies, save it to disk  with no limit on number of copies.







Modify

 

e.g. Translate it or create a derivative work







Excerpt

e.g. Quote a short passage







Annotate

e.g. Inserted editorial or peer commentary







Aggregate

e.g. Compile into an anthology







 

5.      What restriction or conditions would you expect to be in force over OTHER AUTHORS’ works freely available on the web?

Restrictions

For example

Cross all appropriate choices

No restrictions

e.g. Can be used by anyone for any purpose, without limit



For personal use only

e.g. User cannot distribute copies to others



For use bay certain groups

e.g. Only by course teachers



Only for certain purposes

e.g. Teaching or research



Only available for a certain period of time

e.g. Must be removed after 3-5 years



Copies must be exact replicas of the original text

e.g. The text must not be altered in any way.



Copies must be in the same format as the original

e.g. Only PDF copies can be made



Conditions

For example

Choices

No conditions

e.g. Can be used in any way, without the need to register



Users must register

e.g. With a service provider



Usage tracking

e.g. All use (ex. downloads) of articles should be tracked



 

 

D – Your participation in an Open archive project

 

1.      Under which conditions would you be prepared to deposit your works in the Università di Brescia archives? (more than one choice is possible)?

q      Unconditional; I would be happy to take part!

q      That my work is not altered in any way.

q      That my work can also be published in journals as normal.

q      That my work will, in some way, be protected from plagiarism.

q      That the archive management guarantees that my work is kept permanently

q      That the contents of the archive can use some form of index system for research

q      That interoperability with other archives is guaranteed

 

2.      In your opinion, which of your materials should be archived (more than one choice is possible)?

q       Material that has not undergone a quality valuation.

q       Material that has undergone a quality valuation (referee, publishing committee etc.).

q       Educational material.

q       Pre-prints (working papers etc.).

q       Only works that have been accepted by a body that values the quality of the contributions

q       Other

Please specify, here below

 

 

 

 


3.   In order to publish your scientific material in the archive, would you be prepared to ask your publisher to retain the copyright?

 

4.   You would prefer an archive that is:

q       Interdisciplinary

q       Subdivision based on subject matter

q       Subdivision based on content (pre-prints, material that has undergone a quality valuation, educational material…)

 

5.   In your opinion, who should manage the archives?

q      A pre-existing central structure (Ex. Inter-faculty Centro di calcolo interfacoltà)

q      A purpose-built central structure

q      The central inter-faculty library

q      A structure with connections to my faculty

q      Other

Please specify, here below

 

 

 


6.   Once the conditions that you request have been fulfilled, would you be prepared to personally archive your own scientific or educational material?

q       Yes, willingly

q       Yes, if adequately supported by the organisers of the initiative.

q       I wouldn’t know, I would need further information .

q       No, I would prefer someone else to archive my work

Can you specify who, in your opinion?

 

 

 

 


E – Other comments?

 

Do you have any other concern, suggestion or comment regarding the Open access initiatives or self-archiving of scientific production both in general and regarding your own personal production (you can eventually use the back of the sheet)?

 

 

 

 


My sincere thanks for having taken the time to fill in this questionnaire!

 

Eugenio Pelizzari, February 2003