The one that got away? Institutional reporting changes and open access in Australia

Abstract

The voluntary uptake of institutional repositories by academics has been disappointing. This paper describes the repository situation in Australia, and looks at the mandates in place for academics to use them. It then explores the inherent conflict between the institutional requirements of reporting and the ‘invisible college’ – the allegiances academics hold with their research colleagues. It argues that by forcing academics to report in a fashion at odds with their natural flow of work and community, the potential for widespread uptake of repositories as a method of achieving open access is unlikely to succeed. ¶ The introduction in Australia of a new scholarly output reporting system in 2008 has the potential to increase the awareness and use of digital repositories across the academic community. There are, however, two potential problems with using reporting as a vehicle for promoting open access; the system has been developed with limited consultation or consideration of the way different disciplines conduct their work, and the reporting requirement means the papers that must be uploaded into repositories will need to be the publisher’s versions. The new system will result in academics complying with the minimum reporting requirements, and ignoring the wider open access opportunities it offers.