Open Sesame: From Student Success Towards Faculty Research Contributions in Institutional Repositories

Open Sesame: From Student Success Towards Faculty Research Contributions in Institutional Repositories

John H. Hagen

A growing body of evidence regarding the provision of open access of research material is demonstrating that scholarly citations increase as a direct result. In this paper, I will substantiate this impact factor with statistical analysis and case studies that prove the granting of open access of an electronic thesis or dissertation (ETD) can and does open many doors of opportunity for the student. Traditionally, one of the most difficult areas in convincing students and faculty about usage of open access of ETDs has been in the humanities, particularly in fields such as history where junior faculty at research institutions must publish monographs (as opposed to a string of refereed journal articles) as the basis for successful promotion and tenure review. The practical implications regarding successful student experiences will indeed convince our faculty of the many positive dimensions of open access as we promote the expectation that they should contribute their research works without restriction to our university's institutional repository. This type of affirmative evidentiary endorsement will no doubt augment faculty contributions not only to our own institutional repository, but even more importantly it will significantly enhance their involvement in the global research cycle of scholarly communications. We hope this will serve as a model for other institutions seeking to facilitate the promotion of open access of their scholarly works.

2008