Degrees of secrecy in an open environment. The case of electronic theses and dissertations
Journal Title: ESSACHESS - Journal for Communication Studies - Year 2013, Vol 6, Issue 2
Abstract
The open access (OA) principle requires that scientific information be made widely and readily available to society. Defined in 2003 as a “comprehensive source of human knowledge and cultural heritage that has been approved by the scientific communityâ€, open access implies that content be openly accessible and this needs the active commitment of each and every individual producer of scientific knowledge. Today, the success of the open access initiative cannot be denied. Yet, in spite of the growing success of the open access initiative, a significant part of scientific and technical information remains unavailable on the web or circulates with restrictions. Even in institutional repositories (IR) created to provide access to the scientific output of an academic institution and central vector of the so-called green road to open access, more or less important sectors of the scientific production are missing. This is because of lack of awareness, embargo, deposit of metadata without full text, confidential content etc. This problem concerns in particular electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) that are disseminated with different statuses – some are freely available, others are under embargo, confidential, restricted to campus access (encrypted or not) or no available at all. While other papers may be available through alternative channels (journals, monographs etc.), ETDs most often are not. Our paper describes a new and unexpected effect of the development of digital libraries and open access, as a paradoxical practice of hiding information from the scientific community and society, partly while sharing it with a restricted population (campus). We try to explain these different shades of grey literature in terms of different degrees of secrecy related to intellectual property, legitimate interests, expected exploitation and trade secrets, and suggest some ways of increasing availability of ETDs in an open environment (inter-lending loan and document supply, alternative format etc.). The study builds on a review of recent papers on ETDs in institutional repositories and provides empirical evidence on this reality. The study also includes an overview of the thesis mandate policies of IR as mentioned in the ROARMAP directory and an evaluation of the availability of ETDs in a small panel of European and American academic IR, networks and institutions.
Authors and Affiliations
Joachim SCHÖPFEL| Senior lecturer, director of ANRT, GERiiCO, Charles-de-Gaulle University of Lille 3, FRANCE, Hélène PROST| Information professional, INIST CNRS, associated member GERiiCO, Charles-de-Gaulle University of Lille 3, FRANCE
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP9141
- DOI -
- Views 372
- Downloads 22
Fashion pictures and women pictures in French women magazine. Normatives parades or strategic masquerade?
This article proposes to study the fashion pictures within a representative sample of French women magazines. Based on the method of “sémiologie des indicesâ€, used to analyze a corpus of woman’s body and fashion...
Sports for female readership: representations and economicals stakes. The case of l’Equipe Féminine
Starting from a socio-discursive study of the magazine l’Equipe Féminine, this article intends to cross the readership sex variables, journalists sex and editorial and economic positioning. The hypothesis defended co...
To each participatory sciences. Conditions for a participatory biodiversity observatory at the Arcachon Bay
This paper considers the social and scientific requirements for a citizen science monitoring programme on biodiversity in Arcachon Bay (France). The sociological study reveals tensions between different conceptions of...
Remnant “Familyâ€: the role of women in the media discourse on families
How does gender affect discourse processes, particularly regarding the coverage of family issues? In order to explore this question, we focus on media representations of women in their roles as mothers on the one hand...
A New Perspective on Knowledge Metaphorical Analysis: Knowledge as a Field
The purpose of this paper is to present a new perspective on knowledge metaphorical analysis: knowledge as a field. The concept of field is taken from physics, where it is defined as an intangible continuum of force...