8/6/2019 MyOpenArchive, an individual rather than an institutional Open Access Repository, and initial responses

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MyOpenArchive, an individual rather than an institutional 

Open Access Repository, and initial responses

Keita BANDODigital Repository Librarian and Coordinator for Scholarly Communication, MyOpenArchive

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Abstract

Open Access Week [1] indicated the potential of the Open AccessMovement by reaching a large number of current users of OpenAccess Journals and Institutional Repositories (IRs). [2] The mainfocus of this study is to highlight the importance of self-archiving asa form of “iR” for individuals as opposed to IR for institutions. Thus,

we focus on MyOpenArchive, [3] which has been developedthrough the efforts of several individuals.

MyOpenArchive is an Open Access Repository for researchers whoneed to undertake self-archiving. Within the first 3 years of itslaunch, MyOpenArchive has attracted 393 users and received 210posts from individuals. First, we should note that different types ofresearch have been archived using MyOpenArchive. Of the totalnumber of posts, 95% are private studies (so-called gray literature).Moreover, 83% of the posts are licensed under a CreativeCommons License. [4] Users of MyOpenArchive thus seem tounderstand the usefulness of digital rights management. On thebasis of these facts, we can safely assume that iR can meet thedemands of a large number of users who need open resources andlicenses.

MyOpenArchive was created by a university staff member whowished to set up an iR for himself, because his institution did nothave an IR at that time. (See Fig. 1 for a screenshot.) The servicewas developed through the efforts of Japanese individuals who hadno professional knowledge of IR inventory.

Officially, 1,851 IRs have been launched around the world. Japanhas 129 (7%) of the world’s IRs, which makes its academic

repository the fourth largest in the world, after those of the US(383/2%), UK (18/1%), and Germany (142/8%). [5] Japan has 125university IRs, [6] which means that only 16% of Japaneseuniversities (773) have their own IRs. [7] Given that 84% ofJapanese universities do not have their own IRs, we can concludethat 144,000 researchers at Japanese institutions require access tothe green road ―namely, self -archiving.

Therefore, we founded MyOpenArchive in September 2007. We

mainly drew on the principles of Open Access Repositories for

individuals, especially researchers who lack the assistance of

institutions or library staff. Among the literature available on the

web, we advocate the use of open access especially for gray

literature, a term that has recently started to receive general

acceptance for referring to academic resources without repositories.

Gray literature can comprise technical reports, conference papers,

and theses, and can be defined as “documents that are difficult to

access because they have not received large-scale publication or

circulation.” (Fig. 3)

Because such documents tend to be stored in personal collections

from which they cannot be easily retrieved, we have paid special

attention to the use of open access for archiving gray literature

through voluntary efforts, attendance at seminars, [8] and

organization of conferences [9] for researchers.

Initial ResultsWithin the first 3 years of its launch, MyOpenArchive has attracted

393 users and received 210 posts from individuals. Of the total

number of posts on MyOpenArchive, 95% consist of gray literature.

On the basis of the initial results, we can safely claim that the

project has been a success. Through this project, we have acquired

a vast variety of research, including some gray literature, such as

faculty papers and final drafts. We also believe that we have been

successful because a few of the studies in MyOpenArchive have

been cited, for instance, by some theses.

Finally, as shown in Fig. 4, 83% of the users posted their work

under a Creative Commons License. Moreover, 50% of the posts

are under a Creative Commons BY-NC License. [10] Users of

MyOpenArchive therefore understand the usefulness of digital

rights management. These results reveal the increasing public

awareness of the importance of a medium for sharing academic

studies.

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Conclusions

As mentioned above, we advocate MyOpenArchive as an iR forresearchers with or without an IR. We promote MyOpenArchive

because it has successfully fulfilled the needs of researchers not

only in Japan but also around the world. Its infrastructure and user

experience can enhance and expand the global academic

community.

Driven by our belief i n the usefulness of MyOpenArchive,we

launched an English version in November 2011. [11] Twitter,

Facebook, and other social media API have been utilized to

advertise it, as these social media are popular among researchers

around the world. [12] Such advertising has basically been carried

out by volunteers because it is both cost- and time effective. We

hope that this new method of self-archiving revolutionizes scholarly

communication, although other initiatives are also necessary.

References

[1] Open Access Week http://openaccessweek.org / [2] The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics: 2010 Dramatic

Growth of Open Access

http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2010/12/2010-dramatic-

growth-of-open-access.html

[3] MyOpenArchive http://season1.myopenarchive.org/toppage

[4] About the Licenses - Creative Commons

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ 

[5] OpenDOAR Chart - Proportion of Repositories by Country -

Worldwide http://goo.gl/Sghcb

[6] NII Institutional Repositories Program | Current IRs

http://www.nii.ac.jp/irp/en/list/ 

[7] Preliminary Report on School Basic Survey Summary of Results

for FY2009: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and

Technology (PDF: 94KB)

http://www.mext.go.jp/component/b_menu/other/__icsFiles/afieldfile/ 

2009/08/06/1282571_1.pdf

[8] Asia: Open Access Day 2008 – OAD

http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Asia:_Open_Access_Day_2008#N

ational_Institute_of_Informatics.2C_Japan[9] Asia: Open Access Week 2009 – OAD

http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Asia:_Open_Access_Week_2009#

Open_Access_.E2.80.9CFriday_.26_Night.E2.80.9D_2009

[10] Creative Commons―Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0

Unported―CC BY-NC 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-

nc/3.0/ 

[11] MyOpenArchive Launched New Digital Repository for Open

Access | MyOpenArchive Blog

http://blog.myopenarchive.org/2011/01/23/myopenarchive-

launched-new-digital-repository-for-open-access/ 

[12] Social Media: A Guide for Researchers | Research Information

Network http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-

disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers

AcknowledgmentsEditage (www.editage.com), a division of Cactus Communications,

provided partial financial support.

Journal Article

Preprint Thesis or Dissertation

ConferencePaper

Presentation

ResearchPaper

Technical Report

Other

Introduction

Open Repository 2011 /Poster Session/This poster is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Figure 1: Screenshot of MyOpenArchive

Figure 2: Screenshot of the new MyOpenArchive

Figure 3: Types of gray literature

Figure 4: Types of posts on MyOpenArchive