I want to pursue my doctorate degree at SILS to research scholarly communications, the serials crisis, and the open access movement. While traditional subscription-based journals still dominate the scholarly communications landscape, that landscape is shifting, and increasing pressures on library serials budgets and advances in digitization and computer technology have made the open access movement more viable today than at any time since its inception. Still no one can predict how the interplay between publishers, university libraries, publishing scholars, and evolving and emerging technologies will shape the future of scholarly communications.
If you want to support Open Access here at UNC, please sign my Online Petition to the University Libraries.
| Semester | Course Number | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Spring 2008 | INLS 513 | Resources Selection and Evaluation |
| Spring 2009 | INLS 795 | Professional Field Experience: D.H. Hill Library Collection Mgt. Dept. |
| Spring 2009 | INLS 841 | Seminar in Academic Libraries |
| Fall 2009 | INLS 890 | Advanced Seminar in Scholarly Communication |
| Fall 2009 | INLS 992 | Master's Paper: The Publishing Habits of STM Assistant Professors |
My master's paper examines the scholarly publishing habits of tenure-track, assistant professors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who teach in the science, medical, and technology (SMT) disciplines. Specifically, I investigate the common perception that this group of SMT professors are inherently more comfortable with, and accepting of, the purported benefits of the open access movement. I also seek to quantify the willingness of those tenure-track professors who support the open access movement to publish in open access journals. Even if assistant professors highly regard open access journals as a vehicle for scholarly communication, that support is only symbolic if, for career advancement, they elect to publish in traditional, subscription-based journals. Proponents of open access must publish their scholarly works in open access journals if these journals are to have the quality content necessary for their long-term survival.
I view this research only as an initial foray into an investigation of scholarly communication, the serials crisis, and the open access movement. At this time, I see my broader inquiry as whether the open access movement has long-term sustainability and how will it impact scholarly communication. Further research could focus on scholarly publishing habits of tenured SMT faculty and faculty from other disciplines, the support of institutional depositories by universities and their use by scholars, and, perhaps most interestingly to me, the economic viability of the open access model itself.
My professional goal is to research and teach scholarly communication at a major research university. The future of the open access movement is uncertain, but the underlying dynamics that gave rise to the open access movement will continue to generate change and innovation in scholarly communication. Serving as a professor at a major research university will provide me with the opportunity to study those changes and produce research that will benefit the ILS community and other disciplines.
