Electronic resources and institutional repositories in informal scholarly
communication and publishing
Aims and objectives
The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of institutional
repositories in the visibility and use of electronic resources with particular
focus on digital resources outside the framework of formal electronic publishing.
These will be referred to as non-formal e-resources. As the networked research
environment allows academics to produce, communicate and access information
in different ways this research aims to understand the role and characteristics
of new digital resources within institutional repositories. The work will
complement existing research on repositories and formal publishing and suggest
the implications for scholarly communication and publishing in general.
- To critically examine repository approaches towards collecting and disseminating
non-formal electronic resources. This study will attempt to establish the criterion
involved and in particular the attitudes both explicit and implicit towards
the value, function and importance of non-formal resources. This will help
towards understanding the possible role of institutional repositories for managing
and disseminating new types of digital resources required for future more e-science
type research.
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To explore new methodological approaches for measuring and evaluating
use of electronic resources within institutional repositories. In particular
link
analysis as a methodological approach to understanding resource visibility
will be evaluated, and the potential and limitations explored. Additionally
the use of usage data by repository administrators will be examined, focusing
on their attitudes towards its perceived usefulness and how the data is interpreted.
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To investigate in more depth the range and distribution of non-formal
electronic resources within institutional repositories. The study also assesses
the limitations
of current digital typologies for understanding their role.
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To discuss the implications for informal and formal publishing and communication,
in particular with regard to notions of scholarly publishing in order to predict
if these are going to change our notions of communicating and publishing.
In order to achieve these aims the following research questions will be answered.
Main research questions
- How are non-formal electronic resources managed in institutional repositories?
- What are the attitudes towards non-formal electronic resources amongst repository managers?
- What are the different types of non-formal resources within institutional repositories?
- What is the distribution of non-formal resources within institutional repositories?
- To what extent are electronic resources in repositories being used?
- What methodology can be used to evaluate the use of electronic resources in repositories?
- What are the implications of non-formal electronic resources in institutional repositories for scholarly communication and publishing?
- How can the boundaries between formal and informal publishing be defined in a new repository-based environment?
The main research questions can be divided into two areas: academics as producers of electronic resources and academics as users of electronic resources. As producers of electronic resources we need to know what their motivation is for creating this resource (i.e. the perceived demand they are fulfilling) and how they evaluate and assess the usefulness of this resource (i.e. perceived usage). As users of electronic resources we need to know what electronic resources are being used.
