oamap: Open Access Mandates and Practice

A research proposal for open access publishing attitudes and habits in the context of OA Mandates in universities, research institutions, and funding agencies 

This wiki, Open Access Mandates and Practice (oamap), is a proposal for research designed to investigate how OA mandates have impacted researchers' publishing habits and attitudes towards open access publishing.

The research proposal has been created as partial fulfillment for the requirements of LIBR559K, Topics in Computer-Based Information Systems: Open Access, taught by Heather Morrison.  School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies.  Summer 2008. 

Numerous universities, funding agencies, and multi-institutional bodies have implemented open access mandates to address the barriers to access imposed by traditional subscription-based publishing of research articles and data.  The study outlined in this research proposal aims to address the question of how these mandates are impacting on authors' publishing habits and attitudes towards open access publishing.  In addition, the research aims to identify the various factors that contribute to habits and attitudes in situations where mandates have been implemented. 

This proposal outlines a research project which is designed both to answer certain research questions, but is also designed to be an exercise in participatory research and knowledge sharing.  In creating the research on a wiki format, and inviting the research subjects themselves (the researchers publishing their work under OA mandates) to become collaborators on the project, the study can produce benefits along the way as researchers learn about publishing practices and OA policies in other contexts. 

The site logo and above image are adapted from a photo by trazomfreak, 2007, available for use under the creative commons license.  The image is from a map of Old England, painted at a California renaissance fair.