Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/20856
Title: Landscapes of Research: Perceptions of Open Access (OA) Publishing in the Arts and Humanities
Contributor(s): Gross, Julia (author); Ryan, John C  (author)orcid 
Publication Date: 2015
Open Access: Yes
DOI: 10.3390/publications3020065Open Access Link
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/20856
Abstract: It is widely known now that scholarly communication is in crisis, resting on an academic publishing model that is unsustainable. One response to this crisis has been the emergence of Open Access (OA) publishing, bringing scholarly literature out from behind a paywall and making it freely available to anyone online. Many research and academic libraries are facilitating the change to OA by establishing institutional repositories, supporting OA policies, and hosting OA journals. In addition, research funding bodies, such as the Australian Research Council (ARC), are mandating that all published grant research outputs be made available in OA, unless legal and contractual obligations prevent this. Despite these broader changes, not all scholars are aware of the new publishing environment. In particular, the rate of adoption of OA models in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) has historically been lower than Science, Technology and Medicine (STM) disciplines. Nevertheless, some local and international OA exemplars exist in HSS. At Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia, the faculty-administered environmental humanities journal, 'Landscapes', was migrated to the institutional open access repository in 2013. Subsequently, researchers in the Faculty of Education and Arts were surveyed regarding their knowledge, understandings, and perceptions of OA publishing. The survey was also designed to elicit the barriers to OA publishing perceived or experienced by HSS researchers. This article will present the findings of our small faculty-based OA survey, with particular attention to HSS academics (and within this subject group, particular attention to the arts and humanities), their perceptions of OA, and the impediments they encounter. We argue that OA publishing will continue to transform scholarship within the arts and humanities, especially through the role of institutional repositories. The "library-as-publisher" role offers the potential to transform academic and university-specific publishing activities. However, the ongoing training of university researchers and personnel is required to bring into balance their understandings of OA publisher and the demands of the broader Australian and international research environment.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Publications, 3(2), p. 65-88
Publisher: MDPI AG
Place of Publication: Switzerland
ISSN: 2304-6775
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 190399 Journalism and Professional Writing not elsewhere classified
190302 Professional Writing
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 360299 Creative and professional writing not elsewhere classified
360203 Professional writing and journalism practice
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 970116 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society
950299 Communication not elsewhere classified
970110 Expanding Knowledge in Technology
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 280114 Expanding knowledge in Indigenous studies
280123 Expanding knowledge in human society
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article

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