Recruiting content
Unfortunately repositories don't fill themselves automatically. Indeed, in most institutions content recruitment is hard work. This explains why, despite an abundance of repositories, many of them are quite sparsely populated or contain a disproportionately high percentage of final theses, dissertations etc. As long as it isn't compulsory to deposit scholarly output in archives, as long as authors are merely requested to do so, resolute public relations strategies and advertising are called for.
What concrete steps can be taken to populate repositories and to establish them firmly in their institutions?
Target scholars directly
Experience in various institutions shows that a well-thought-out public relations strategy and direct communication with scholars pay dividends. Once they have been made aware of the benefits of self-archiving, most academic authors are willing to deposit their material in repositories. Moreover, a survey conducted in 2004 on behalf of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Open Society Institute (OSI) revealed that most authors would be willing to make their contributions openly accessible if a grant-awarding body required them to do so (JISC/OSI Journal Authors Survey Report).
The more directly repositories target scholars, the greater the prospects of success. Authors who have already made work openly accessible are often not only prepared to continue to do so but are also frequently willing to recruit content on the repository's behalf. For repository operators it is particularly advantageous to win the support of leading researchers who are willing to act as multipliers in this way. Another strategy is to target those scholars who make a lot of their work openly accessible on their own personal website anyway. It is safe to assume that they will be open to depositing their work on a document server. This type of contact can be used to recruit further content. Furthermore, it is important to take advantage of good opportunities whenever they arise. For example, an enquiry from a researcher from the University of Konstanz about a copyright issue relating to the redesign of his website on which he intended to make full-text versions of his work openly accessible, led to the organisation of an information session for several branches of the faculty on the subject of Open Access and copyright. This resulted in the recruitment of over 500 publications from faculty members.
Gain a strong foothold in the institution
The most sustainable way of populating a repository is by mandating that members of a university, faculty or a research organisation make their research results and publications openly accessible on the institution's document server. The current legal position in Germany precludes the imposition of such a mandate. The only alternative is for institutions to formally declare their commitment to Open Access as recommended by the Berlin Declaration. One way or the other, it is essential to put a lot of effort into winning the support of management in order to achieve as many voluntary OA contributions as possible.
Because university or institute managers who support OA are useful strategic partners for repositories, they should be kept informed about increases in archive content. Furthermore, Open Access officers should be appointed for the institution as a whole and not just for the library.
One excellent but rarely used measure is to link the institution's homepage to the document server or at least to insert a reference on the homepage to the fact that documents can be self-archived on the server.
Identify reservations and opposition
Only when repositories are aware of the reservations people have about self-archiving can they show that they are unfounded. So it is a good idea to get into conversation with members of the institution and sound out their misgivings. Efforts can then be made to overcome resistance systematically. If, for example, the time required to self-archive is an issue, repositories can respond to researchers' concerns by offering to do the job for them.
Use convincing arguments
One good argument which has the potential to convince scholars to self-archive their research results is that OA contributions have a higher citation rate than their toll-access counterparts. This argument cannot be stressed often enough.
Another good tactic is to cite influential supporters of Open Access, for example the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) or the German Research Foundation (DFG), both of whom have signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. The overwhelming support received by the Petition for guaranteed public access to publicly-funded research results addressed to the European Commission is also bound to impress. When the management of an institution supports the OA principle and, ideally, expresses this support publicly, then this, in itself, is another convincing argument. It is also a good idea to mention faculty or department colleagues who have already deposited numerous texts in the institution's repository.
Organise information sessions and training courses
Another promising strategy is to organise information sessions for committees and institutes on the subject of Open Access in general and the repository in particular and to run training courses on self-archiving. Alternatively, the topic can be aired in other contexts such as information-competence tutorials.
Further advertising measures
- Use the repository's mail signature as a vehicle for advertising
- Use the university magazine to make the repository known
- Publicise the achievement of certain targets (for example, the 500, 1,000 and 5,000 document mark)
- Organise events and PR in the institution
- Create (financial) incentives; give prizes, rewards
- Publicise the deposit of particularly relevant documents, issue a list of top downloads etc
- Use the institution's mailing list
- Distribute flyers in the institution
- Hang posters in various locations (for example, the library)
- Demonstrate the quality of the archived documents and exercise quality management by introducing premium-content categories
If you have any other ideas, please mail us: info(at)openaccess-germany.de
