Online archive opens access to research

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By Heather Travis
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Faculty members don't publish research only to have it sit in a journal in the library and collect dust. It is meant to be shared, discussed and distributed.

In a perfect world, everyone would have open access to the latest research information. Thanks to a new initiative started at Western Libraries, The University of Western Ontario is a few steps closer to that ideal.  
 
Scholarship@Western is a new online resource that collects, disseminates, archives and preserves scholarly materials created or sponsored by Western.   
 
“We want to increase access to publically funded projects,” says Adrian Ho, Scholarly Communication Librarian at Western Libraries who manages the website. “We can help showcase research at the institution to the rest of the world.”
 
Accessing publications can sometimes be difficult, as many scholarly journals are subscription-based and online access is limited to those associated with an institution that has a subscription.
 
One way of getting around this is to use the inter-library loan system to get a hard-copy version housed at another university.  
 
A best-case scenario would be to make research freely available online.
 
In comes Scholarship@Western, which is targeting academics and the general public with an online archive that assembles the most up-to-date research by Western scholars.  
 
Western is behind the curve with providing open access to scholarly materials, says Ho. Many European universities support the movement, and it is gaining momentum among leading universities in the United States.  
 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has an institution-wide mandate for all faculty members to provide an electronic copy of scholarly articles to be added to an open access repository.
 
At Harvard University, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has implemented a similar policy to provide free access to faculty’s published research, which was later supported by Harvard Law School, the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
 
“They recognize they have done good work, they have a lot of breakthroughs and they want to share their research with the rest of the world,” says Ho. “Knowledge, if you don’t share it, isn’t any good at all.”  
 
Although Western does not require faculty to submit scholarly materials to an open access repository, Ho believes this issue should be debated and it must be supported by faculty before it can be mandated.  
 
On Monday, Sept. 14 five leading U.S. universities announced a new Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity pledging to develop systems to pay open access journals for the articles they publish by the institutions' scholars.
 
MIT, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley agreed to “the timely establishment of durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication charges for articles written by its faculty and published in fee-based open-access journals and for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds.”
 
Some Canadian funding agencies have begun requiring researchers to provide open access to their findings to promote transparency and public accountability.  
 
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s policy requires open access to peer-reviewed articles within six months of publication, otherwise funding will be curtailed. Similarly, Canadian Health Services Research Foundation has a six-month deadline for funded researchers to publish results in open access journals or an online repository.
 
To address the growing need for open access, Scholarship@Western was launched in December 2008 and to date, more than 460 papers have been added.
 
The archive aims to advance scholarship and disseminate knowledge by providing open access to the academic and professional achievements at Western.
 
Researchers create a webpage using a Western template to which a profile, curriculum vitae, and contact information can be added. The content added to the website is updated and maintained by the faculty member.  
 
The web page provides the abstract and citation of the article and it can link to published and non-published articles, contributions, books or other scholarly materials, presentations, conference proceedings, etc. Faculty members can also upload a PDF version of the article.
 
Ho encourages researchers to review the journal’s copyright agreement before posting the reprint on the repository site, as permission from the journal may be required. Readers are invited to join the researchers’ mailing list to receive notifications when new materials have been added to the web page.  
 
As well, if the faculty member or researcher stops working at Western, the web page will not be removed; the template will change to a generic version and it will continue to be accessible.
 
“It is easy for them to create a page like this and they will have it for life,” says Ho. Not only will the archive increase the researcher’s and university’s scholarly profile, it can be useful for collaborations, he notes.
 
“It’s another way to put researchers in touch with one another.”
 
In today’s economic climate where institutional resources are limited, Ho says providing open access to scholarly materials will prevent research efforts from being duplicated and help to advance new research developments.
 
“It’s a way to highlight academic achievements at Western. In turn, we will get international recognition that we are a research-intensive university,” he adds.
 

More info

To learn more about Scholarship@Western, contact Adrian Ho at 519-661-2111 ext. 87832 or e-mail adrian.ho@uwo.ca. Check out the website at http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/.      

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