Open access marketing at the University of Malta : a case study of how the University of Malta Library set up the Open Science Department to help market and promote the open access institutional repository : OAR@UoM

Abstract

In 2014, the University of Malta Library (UM) launched its Open Access Institutional Repository - OAR@UoM. Since OAR@UoM is the first and only online Institutional Repository (IR) on the Maltese Islands, it also plays a major role to promote Open Access (OA) nationally, and to form partnerships with other stakeholders who lack the infrastructure but are interested to deposit in OA. This pushes the boundaries of traditional IRs and creates a new set of challenges. The Outreach department of the University of Malta Library was tasked with promoting OAR@UoM, and also develop training workshops to instruct academics on how to upload their research, whilst providing some background information on OA and the benefits associated. A number of promotional materials were created and disseminated on campus to help increase the awareness of OA and OAR@UoM. During the yearly OA week (October) on Campus, the Library organizes a number of OA related activities,talks and discussions. In 2015, in collaboration with FOSTER, the library organized a conference to further promote OA, to add the wider international perspectives on its role, and to address the misconceptions regarding OA brought forward by a number of academics. The one day conference titled Open Access and its impact on research and scholarship included discussions on the impact of OA on the Maltese research/academic community.

After providing academics with monthly workshops on the benefits of OA and showing them how easy it is to upload on OAR@UoM, only a handful of academics have actually uploaded their publications (or their research outcomes). In 2017, with the OA Policy being in its final stages of approval, the University of Malta Library decided to set up an Open Science department to better organize the workflow related to OA and submission of items on the IR. Thus, the contributions of academics from the UM for the time being depends entirely on their views on the usefulness of the IR. Consultations with local academics on their views on the IR show that the most popular reasons they are mentioning as obstacles for submitting work, are copyright issues or specific agreements with publishers, or not having the time to submit. This is evident from a number of comments from academics during training workshops held between 2014-2017 by library staff members.

Reflecting on the hindering blocks experienced so far, an important role for the new Open Science department is to help researchers acquire permission and copyright clearance from journal publishers to upload papers on OAR@UoM. The department will also be collaborating with the Library’s Outreach department to organize promotional campaigns and set up meetings with various heads of faculties and institutes within the University of Malta to further explain the benefits of having an OA Policy and encourage them to submit research on the IR. Some UM journal editors have already been contacted vis-a-vis the use of OAR@UoM as a means of disseminating their publications.

Since the Open Science department is a relatively new department, the research will look into its creation and development and focus on its impact on the UMa research community. By taking a qualitative approach, different observations will be obtained by interviewing all the parties’ involved with its proposed strategies. Furthermore, examples of how OA was promoted and implemented, other universities implemented, will be used as a comparison with what the University of Malta is doing.