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Purpose – The aim of this paper is to evaluate Malaysian authors' readiness to self-archive in open access repositories. The effectiveness of open access repositories to support knowledge-sharing is expected to be highly dependent on the readiness of authors to self-archive their research output. Design/methodology/approach – The study has adopted a quantitative research design and a web based survey method was used for data-gathering. The subjects of the study were authors within the five research-intensive universities in Malaysia. An e-mail invitation was sent out to 1,000 authors within the five intensive universities, of which 108 responded. This study uses the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model, which postulates the constructs of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions on using technology. These constructs determine the behavioral intent, which influences the usage behavior of this technology. Findings – The findings from this study revealed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating condition did not influence authors' behavioral intention to self-archive. Even though academic researchers tend to agree that institutional repositories are a good way of disseminating information and use them frequently, most of them have not fully embraced self-archiving in institutional repositories. Originality/value – This is the first attempt to utilize the UTAUT model to assess self-archiving practices, and it shows that self-archiving does not prove strong support for the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a survey carried out on academics in five Malaysian research-intensive universities, investigating their readiness to self archive in Open Access institutional repositories. The study revolves around the following issues: (a) academics’ awareness of self archiving in an institutional repository within their institution; (b) their perceptions about self archiving scientific information into institutional repositories; (c) their perceptions regarding obligations to self archive in institutional repositories; and (d) the possible reasons that inhibit them in contributing to institutional repositories. The answers were identified from 72 academics through a web-based survey. The study reveals that the majority of academics in this study have no or little knowledge of, or experience with, institutional repositories and are unfamiliar with self-archiving opportunities. However most of them endorse the principle of Open Access and are willing to contribute content to an institutional repository if an opportunity arises or if mandated by their funding institutions. Those who agree to self archiving see it to be beneficial in the author’s life as it enhances visibility and recognition of the author’s work, but the main problem encountered is the fact that researchers feel it is time consuming. The major barrier to self archiving is fear of plagiarism. In light of these results, there is a need to create more awareness and to educate authors on the importance of self archiving. Ensuring free electronic access to public-funded research lies with the funding institutions, especially universities, which should set up appropriate repository infrastructures, advocate the public good and ethical implications of open access and even mandate self-archiving of research they fund. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]