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Introduction. This study explores the extent to which an institutional repository makes papers available and accessible on the open Web by using 170 journal articles housed in DigiNole Commons, the institutional repository at Florida State University. Method. To analyse the repository's impact on availability and accessibility, we conducted independent known-item title searches on both Google and Google Scholar (GS) to search for faculty publications housed in DigiNole Commons. Analysis. The extent to which the repository makes articles available and accessible was measured quantitatively and the findings that cannot be summarized with numbers were analysed qualitatively. Results. Google and Google Scholar searches provided links to DigiNole metadata for a total of 145 (85.3%) of 170 items, and to full texts for 96 (96%) of 100 items. With one exception, access to either metadata or full text required no more than three clicks. Conclusions. Overall, the results confirm the contribution of the institutional repository in making papers available and accessible. The results also reveal some impediments to the success of open access, including impediments linked to contractual arrangements between authors and publishers, impediments linked to policies, practices and technologies governing the repository itself, and the low level of faculty participation in the repository. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author suggests to conference organizers to consider publishing papers in the periodical "Information Research" in order to attract participants. He cites that journals have wider circulation compared to conference proceedings. He emphasizes that papers available on the Web are more likely to be used than those that are published in toll access journals. He recommends open access journal publishing to authors in order to reach their target audience.

Introduction. This paper presents the issues and challenges faced by a university library in encouraging academics and researchers to adopt open access, specifically with respect to depositing publications in the institutional repository Method. Interviews were conducted with academics and researchers about their awareness of open access and their use of the university repository. An action research approach was used to address issues on a continual basis, and redesign the repository based on the findings. Analysis. The interview data were analysed using thematic content analysis, and the repository data were analysed using heuristic evaluation Results. Results show that researchers lack awareness of open access and its value, and that there is also confusion about publishers' copyright policies and researcher reputation. The lack of visibility and usability of the library-managed institutional repository was found to be an issue, as well as the need for subject repositories. The results informed a redesign of the repository and informed the library's strategies to promote scholarly communication literacy. Conclusion. Whilst librarians have been advocates of open access, researchers' understanding of it is still limited? they have other pressures in regard to their publishing outputs, which also limits their adoption of open access practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Open access to digital research output is increasing, but academic library policies can place restrictions on public access to libraries. This paper reports on a preliminary study to investigate the correlation between academic library access policies and institutional positions of openness to knowledge. Method. This primarily qualitative study used document and data analysis to examine the content of library access or use policies of twelve academic institutions in eight countries. The outcomes were statistically correlated with institutional open access publication policies and practices. Analysis. We used an automated search tool together with manual searching to retrieve Webbased library access policies, then categorised and counted the levels and conditions of public access. We compared scores for institutional library access feature with open access features and percentages of open access publications. Results. Academic library policies may suggest open public access but multi-layered user categories, privileges and fees charged can inhibit such access, with disparities in openness emerging between library policies and institutional open access policies. Conclusion. As open access publishing options and mandates expand, physical entry and access to print and electronic resources in academic libraries is contracting. This conflicts with global library and information commitments to open access to knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The point of departure for this paper is the twofold analogy (analogy of content, analogy of medium) between printed and electronic books, the aim being to draw attention to the usual perception of their capacities and relationships, to provide a rather detailed analysis of the outcome and sustainability of such analogies and ultimately to indicate the drawbacks involved. Method. The contextual analysis of contents of the key themes is employed; in the articulation of the conclusions, analytic and synthetic approaches are used. Results. The definitions of the e-book are not consensual or sustainable, rather reflect the current developmental phase of the phenomenon. The emphasis is placed upon changes, and continuity is ignored, and it is not seen that the possibility of analogies derives from a long historical development. While the analogy of content is sustainable, for it implies the reproduction of the same discourses in different media, analogy of medium is not, for the interactive capacities permitted by the printed and the electronic medium are different. Conclusions. The e-book discourse has to be expanded by understandings drawn from cognate areas such as book history, publishing studies and in general by those from the extremely useful insights employed in the cultural-historical approach, for all the media functioning in any given period coexist and affect each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Open access, the notion that research output, such as journal articles, should be freely accessible to readers on the Web, is arguably in the best interest of science. In this article, we (1) describe in-depth how a society-owned philosophy journal, Nordic Wittgenstein Review, evaluated various publishing models and made an informed decision on how best to adopt open access publishing for the journal, and (2) develop and implement measures to evaluate the chosen model. Method. This case study uses reports from editorial board members (mainly the editor-in-chief), Web access metrics as well as a Web survey to the journal community as well as the wider philosophy research community. Analysis. After two years as a delayed open access journal with commercial publishers, the journal made a decision to become an independent scholar-run journal without fees to readers or authors, and which would rely mainly on volunteer effort with university faculty support. This decision was made after evaluating various publishing scenarios and negotiating with potential publishers. This study breaks down what is involved in terms of input and effort compared to having handed over the publishing of the journal to an external publisher. Conclusions. For an open access journal choosing between publishing models, elements of ideology and feasibility need to be balanced. This article provides an overview of relevant elements and some means to judge feasibility in journal publishing endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses the development of "Information Research" over the past 15 years. The author notes that the field of information research has expanded and includes many more related fields. The article also presents information about the papers published in this issue, including papers by Pamela McKenzie, Javier Guallar and Ernest Abadal, and Lin-Chih Chen. The topics include relationships between midwives and women and digital archives of Spanish newspapers.

This section introduces the March 2008 issue of "Information Research," which covered a variety of subjects like aspects of electronic publishing and implementation of digital repositories.

Introduction. The aim of the research was to increase understanding of the state of e-book production in Lithuania and collect the data about the opinions of publishers regarding the future of e-books in the country. Method. A review of similar surveys in other countries was carried out and the research method was based on Winston's model of innovation diffusion. The questionnaire to publishers was prepared using the models of book publishing and distribution or book circuit developed by Murray and Squires. Data were collected by surveying respondents using paper and online questionnaires. Analysis. A quantitative descriptive statistical analysis was carried out, while open questions were analysed qualitatively looking for emerging topics. Results. More than half of active Lithuanian publishers completed the survey. Thirty per cent of those who answered the questionnaire publish e-books, but only six publishers had published a significant number of titles. The overall perception of other actors of the book market, such as libraries, book-sellers and self-publishing authors and others is positive. They are not regarded as a threat. The publishers do not expect rapid and significant growth of e-book market in Lithuania in the near future. Conclusions. The biggest hindrance to growth is a small size of the market and the lack of an export market for Lithuanian e-books. The demand of users for portable and convenient format and the use of new technologies in the educational system are the two biggest drivers in the development of ebook production. The user preference for traditional printed book is seen as one of the barriers for further development. Lithuanian publishers regard the market of e-books as rather uncertain and do not risk high investments in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Digital library users collect, enhance and manage their online reference collections to facilitate their research tasks. These personal collections, therefore, are likely to reflect users' interests, and are representative of their profile. Understanding these collections offers great opportunities for developing personalized digital library services, such as reference recommender systems. Method. We recruited subjects by individual e-mails to the users of RefWorks - a web-based personal reference management tool installed for use at the University of Minnesota. To participate, subjects needed to give their consent and share their references with us. 96 subjects participated, majority (65) of who were graduate students, resulting into 30,336 references. Based on the type of the reference, these were stratified into one of the three valid identifying IDs - DOI, ISBN, or URL. Multiple reference resolvers (CrossRef, WorldCat) were used to enhance the overall resolvability of these collections. Analysis. Descriptive statistics and simple graphics analysis were used to describe the dataset. Results. Over 90% of the total references in users' personal collections could possibly have a valid ID (DOI, ISBN, URL), and therefore, are potentially resolvable. However, only about 17% of the references in these collections had a valid ID, and fewer than 11% actually resolved successfully. Using a combination of reference resolvers, the total resolvability of the references in these collections was enhanced from under 11% to over 41%. Conclusions. Users' personal reference collections have a tremendous potential of building, supporting, and enhancing personalized digital library services, such as reference recommender systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. This paper draws on the results of studies undertaken between 2004 and 2007 as part of Project REVISTAS, supported by the European Commission's ALFA Programme. Method. A variety of methods was employed over the life of the project, including analysis of directories, a survey of universities in the region believed to be offering programmes in library and information science, analysis of course documentation to determine the journals cited and an analysis of journal Websites. Results. The weaknesses of the printed scholarly publication process for library and information science in the discipline are highlighted. These include a lack of quality control and haphazard publication programmes. The emergence of electronic publication is identified and the potential it presents is discussed. Conclusions. If scholarly publication in this discipline within Latin America is to achieve its potential, both in the dissemination of research and in the education of students, the opportunities presented by electronic publication, electronic archiving must be grasped, but the full benefits cannot be achieved without attention to the need for peer review and other quality control methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Publishing research findings in open access journals is a means of enhancing visibility and consequently increasing the impact of publications. This study provides an overview of open access publishing in premier research institutes of India. Method. The publication output of each institution from 2003 to 2007 was ascertained through Scopus and the name of source journals along with the number of publications recorded. All 4232 journal titles were searched in the Directory of Open Access Journals and then using the Google search engine to find out which journals are openly accessible. Analysis. The data are tabulated and analysed in a systematic way to reveal findings in accordance with desired objectives. Results. The 17,516 research articles are contributed by the five institutions and appear in 4232 journals. The Indian Institute of Science publishes 8.26% of its research output in open access journals, All India Institute of Medical Sciences 19.37%, Baba Atomic Research Centre 4.84%, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 3.04% and Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 3.26%. Conclusions. The study reveals that a small portion of research publications of Indian research institutes is published in open access journals, the majority in journals of Indian origin. The medical institutions are contributing more of their publications to open access journals compared to other institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Nowadays government policies, laws, and other valuable information are published via the web. However, it is very difficult to ensure the comprehensiveness, accuracy and currency of all Webpublications manually, because there are too many Websites that are usually maintained by different departments and agencies. Method. We proposed a Web monitoring system based Web information integration method to resolve this problem. It has been utilized for Australian and Tasmanian government Web information integration for the State Library of Tasmania since July 2005. We have been monitoring 249 federal, state and local government Websites for the Web information integration since July 2005. Monitoring Websites consist of federal government homepages (21 sites, 8%), federal government media release pages (108 sites, 44%), Tasmanian government homepages (73 sites, 30%), Tasmanian government media release pages (16 sites, 6%), and Tasmanian local government homepages (31, 12%) Analysis. We analysed overall, monthly, weekly and daily monitoring trends and usage of the monitoring results. Results. In total, the Web monitoring system collected 30,279 documents during the monitoring period. The most prolific domain is federal media release pages (16,075 documents, 51%). This is followed by Tasmanian government homepages (6,288 documents, 20%), Tasmanian government media release pages (4,673 documents, 15%), federal government homepages (3,243 documents, 10%), and local council homepages (1,493 documents, 5%). These monitoring results are used to modify the current Web information (62%), to add new information(22%), and to delete current Web information (16%)of two Tasmanian government information portal. Conclusions. Our research shows that Web monitoring based approach is very useful, because it supports Web information integration without requiring any changes in the current system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on consideration of issues of making free availability of research data and mentions differences and similarities of research field enacting open access and research data sharing. Topics discussed include several forms of research data management that are not found open, difference between different research fields in sharing data and scientific publishing that take place in first language of countries.

Introduction This case study is based on the experiences with the Electronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon), founded in 1995. Development This journal is an example of a particular category of open access journals, which use neither author charges nor subscriptions to finance their operations, but rely largely on unpaid voluntary work in the spirit of the open source movement. The journal has, after some initial struggle, survived its first decade and is now established as one of half-a-dozen peer reviewed journals in its field. Operations The journal publishes articles as they become ready, but creates virtual issues through alerting messages to ‘subscribers’. It has also started to publish special issues, since this helps in attracting submissions, and also helps in sharing the work-load of review management. From the start the journal adopted a rather traditional layout of the articles. After the first few years the HTML version was dropped and papers are only published in PDF format. Performance The journal has recently been benchmarked against the competing journals in its field. Its acceptance rate of 53% is slightly higher and its average turnaround time of seven months almost a year faster compared to those journals in the sample for which data could be obtained. The server log files for the past three years have also been studied. Conclusions Our overall experience demonstrates that it is possible to publish this type of OA journal, with a yearly publishing volume equal to a quarterly journal and involving the processing of some fifty submissions a year, using a networked volunteer-based organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. We examine how residents and citizens of The Netherlands perceive open access to acquire preliminary insight into the role it might play in cultivating civic scientific literacy. Open access refers to scientific or scholarly research literature available on the Web to scholars and the general public in free online journals and institutional repositories. Method. Four focus group sessions were held at a conference centre near Amsterdam. Participants were between the ages of twenty-one to sixty and grouped on the basis of age and educational background. All were invited to complete a brief digital literacy and information literacy questionnaire, and contribute to a set of ranking and vignette exercises designed to encourage discussion. Results. Participants generally agreed that open access literature could be useful for personal decision making and conveyed an interest in medical treatment research and other research 'that has to do with people.' Some concern was expressed about the cognitive accessibility of scientific research, but participants were confident that they had the online search skills to find this literature. Science journalists were appreciated for their role as interpreters; however, universities and scholars were considered more credible as information sources, though some participants wondered if scientists and scholars were making their work visible enough to the lay public. Conclusions. Current science policy in The Netherlands is focused on motivating young people to raise their interest in science and technology and engage in science-related careers. We recommend the introduction in schools of strategic e-learning programmes designed to help young citizens develop a greater appreciation for scholarly and scientific research and improve their capacity to make decisions as online information consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the case of "The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship" (E-JASL). In 1999, the author partnered with the International Consortium for Alterative Academic Publication (ICAAP) to found a new electronic journal, "The Journal of Southern Academic and Special Librarianship," renamed E-JASL. The case study is based on the author's own experiences founding and developing a professional, independent, permanently archived, peer reviewed, open-access, electronic library journal, employing a scholar-led model of publishing.

Introduction. Presents a personal account of the transfer to open access of the leading Canadian journal of sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]