Buried in the noise
For those who haven't been following Deep Blue: there was a news release from the UofM about public access to U-M research work. My research being in the Open Access area, I have been following the twists and turns of this initiative both at UofM and some other research institutions - and it seems that again the "build it and they will come" fallacy is playing out in most places.
The inherent tension between institution and field typically imply that researchers, especially those that are just starting out (for whom publication in top journals and visibility among peers is a key issue) choose the path that their field takes. If Open Access is acceptable in their field, the next question is - institutional repository or field or journal based repository? I feel that senior researchers, professors and prolific academics, for whom tenure and such things are a given should take the lead and use these OA repositories first, network effects, peer pressure and such things will then reduce the hesitation of the junior folks in doing the same. The OA movement though is slowly but surely moving forward.
The inherent tension between institution and field typically imply that researchers, especially those that are just starting out (for whom publication in top journals and visibility among peers is a key issue) choose the path that their field takes. If Open Access is acceptable in their field, the next question is - institutional repository or field or journal based repository? I feel that senior researchers, professors and prolific academics, for whom tenure and such things are a given should take the lead and use these OA repositories first, network effects, peer pressure and such things will then reduce the hesitation of the junior folks in doing the same. The OA movement though is slowly but surely moving forward.