TY - JOUR
T1 - The quandary between communication and certification : individual academics’ views on open access and open scholarship
AU - Ren Xiang, Xiang (Tony)
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand individual academics’ perception, attitudes and participation in Open Access Publishing and open scholarship and revisit some principles and designs of openness in academic publishing from the perspective of creative end-users, which helps to increase the sustainability and efficiency of open models. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on a case study of China and empirical data collected through semi-structured interviews with a wide range of academics and stakeholders. Findings – A separation between the communication and certification functions of publishing is identified: open initiatives are valued for efficient and interactive communication while traditional publishing still dominates the legitimacy of research publications, which leads to the quandary of individual academics operating within the transitional landscape of scholarly communication. Practical implications – Practical recommendations for sustainable and efficient openness are derived from discussions on the difficulties associated open/social certification and the shifting maxims that govern academics from 'publish or perish' to 'be visible or vanish'. Originality/value – 'Openness' is defined in broad sense integrating Open Access and open scholarship to comprehensively reflect individual academics’ views in the transitional landscape of academic publishing. The research findings suggest that new open approaches are needed to address the evolving tension and conflicts between communication and certification.
AB - Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand individual academics’ perception, attitudes and participation in Open Access Publishing and open scholarship and revisit some principles and designs of openness in academic publishing from the perspective of creative end-users, which helps to increase the sustainability and efficiency of open models. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on a case study of China and empirical data collected through semi-structured interviews with a wide range of academics and stakeholders. Findings – A separation between the communication and certification functions of publishing is identified: open initiatives are valued for efficient and interactive communication while traditional publishing still dominates the legitimacy of research publications, which leads to the quandary of individual academics operating within the transitional landscape of scholarly communication. Practical implications – Practical recommendations for sustainable and efficient openness are derived from discussions on the difficulties associated open/social certification and the shifting maxims that govern academics from 'publish or perish' to 'be visible or vanish'. Originality/value – 'Openness' is defined in broad sense integrating Open Access and open scholarship to comprehensively reflect individual academics’ views in the transitional landscape of academic publishing. The research findings suggest that new open approaches are needed to address the evolving tension and conflicts between communication and certification.
KW - altmetrics
KW - open access publishing
KW - peer review
KW - scholarly publishing
UR - http://handle.westernsydney.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:39417
UR - https://search.proquest.com/docview/1712455331?accountid=36155
U2 - 10.1108/OIR-04-2015-0129
DO - 10.1108/OIR-04-2015-0129
M3 - Article
SN - 1468-4527
VL - 39
SP - 682
EP - 697
JO - Online Information Review
JF - Online Information Review
IS - 5
ER -