Increasing Self-Archiving of Faculty Publications in Institutional Repositories

Despite the increasing interest in institutional repositories by academic institutions and recognition that publisher policies make widespread “green” open access currently achievable, faculty deposits in institutional repositories remain low. Surveys show that faculty support open access initiatives, but may be held back by the perception that self-archiving of their publications creates extra work for them. The solution to this is to make self-archiving in institutional repositories as easy as possible for faculty. This can be done in three ways: (1) outreach and education, (2) institutional mandates and (3) increasing the visibility and findability of repositories. The conclusion is that a range of strategies will need to be adopted, and will vary based on the particular characteristics of each institution