I've deposited on E-LIS (http://eprints.rclis.org/) a pre-print of an article to be published on LIBRI, titled:
Academic staff use, perception and expectations about Open-access archives: A survey of Social Science Sector at Brescia University This is an abridged version of my master dissertation at New Castele University. Here is the abstract: This study surveyed the academic population of the faculties of Economics and Law of the University of Study of Brescia, Italy. The survey sought to determine knowledge and use of Open-Access archives in the different disciplines, and to verify the conditions stated by the authors to participate in an Institutional Open-Access initiative. Other related issues, such as authors' attitudes towards publishers' copyright policies and role of the library, were investigated. Research methods were based on triangulation approach, and consisted in a Literature Review, Semi-structured interviews and a Questionnaire survey. The response rate to the questionnaire was 57,9% (62 authors). Results show that 44 percent (25/57) of the authors knows about the existence of Open-Access initiatives and archives. Among the people who answered that they were aware of the existence of Open-Access archives, only 4 percent (1/25) affirmed they had already used them to deposit papers, while 33 percent (16/48), among those who declared to use materials free available on the web, affirmed to have used an Open-Access disciplinary archive. Sixty-one percent (41/62) of the respondents answered they were prepared to personally archive their own scientific or educational material on an institutional repository, once the conditions that they request have been fulfilled There is no statistically significant association between faculties of origin, professional status and knowledge about Open-Access initiative or personal availability to self-archiving. Statistically significant association between years of work in academia and personal availability to self-archiving is not present, either. Only the association between years of working in academia and knowledge about Open-Access archives and initiatives reveals a leaning towards statistical significance (p=0.06). >From the study emerges the crucial role that authors play in the process of diffusion of Open-Access initiatives, the need to compare the results of this study with researches in other disciplinary fields and the role that libraries can play for the enhancement of Scholarly Communication. I hope it may be helpful. Any comment will be appreciated. My best regards Eugenio Pelizzari *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.* Eugenio Camillo Pelizzari Tel. 030 2988345 Biblioteca Centrale Interfacoltà Fax: 030 2988367 Università degli Studi di Brescia mailto:peliz...@eco.unibs.it Via Porcellaga, 21 25121 BRESCIA http://www.bci.unibs.it