Risks, benefits and revelations: An exploratory study of doctoral students' perceptions of open access theses in institutional repositories

Abstract

This exploratory study examined doctoral students' awareness of and attitudes towards open access (OA) particularly in relation to institutional repositories (IR). Levels of students' awareness of OA and the concept of IRs, publishing behaviour, and perceived benefits and risks of OA publishing were explored. The study also examined students' willingness to comply with mandatory submission policies. The study sample was drawn from Massey University, one of the two universities in New Zealand which has had a mandatory submission policy in place since 2007.Qualitative and quantitative data was collected from doctoral students in two stages: first through a series of qualitative interviews with students from different disciplines, followed by self-completion questionnaires collected from a larger sample. In this paper, we discuss and highlight a number of potential strategies for raising awareness and for improving understanding of the benefits of OA IR to encourage acceptance and adoption. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.