The transition toward open access: the University of Hong Kong experience
| Date | 14 November 2017 |
| Published date | 14 November 2017 |
| Pages | 488-496 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-02-2017-0013 |
| Author | Gayle Rosemary Chan,Allan Shi-Chung Cheung |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,HR in libraries,Library strategy,Library promotion |
The transition toward open
access: the University of Hong
Kong experience
Gayle Rosemary Chan
Department of Libraries, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and
Allan Shi-Chung Cheung
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Abstract
Purpose –While open access (OA) offers an alternative to the unsustainable pricing of serials and supports a
core value of ensuring openness to knowledge, the perceived value of the impactof OA journals is still lacking
consensus among stakeholders. This study is based on the analysis of the University of Hong Kong (HKU)
research publication data within four broad disciplines –health science, life science, physical science and
social science –and the purpose of this paper is to understand the perspectives and preferences of academic
researchers around OA. The findings are useful to libraries in shaping their strategies for meeting the rising
challenges of scholarly publishing.
Design/methodology/approach –Article publication data from HKU have been collected and analyzed
with the purpose of exploring general OA trends and understanding authors’incentives for publishing in
OA journals.
Findings –The explosion in the number of OA journals in recent years has not only impacted on how
libraries manage contents and budgets, but also on academic researchers’choice of journals for submitting
their articles for publication. This study conducted at the HKU indicated that academic researchers have a
gradual tendency to shift toward publishing their work in OA journals, and interestingly, the shifts are to
some extent discipline specific.
Research limitations/implications –The OA marketplace is currently undergoing a state of flux.
The OA model of funding through article publication charges, process of peer review and reputation in the
marketplace are under rapid development.
Practical implications –As OA journals take up a sizeable market share of the scholarly journal
publishing market, libraries need to stay abreast of developments in the OA sector in order to respond to
researcher needs. Understanding the thinking behind researcher’s decisions in choosing venue for submission
of publications helps to advance research support services which the library offers.
Social implications –The change in researcher behavior prompted by the gravitation toward sharing of
research contents in scholarly communication networks and broader choice of OA journals have resulted in a
positive growth of OA articles publishing at the HKU.
Originality/value –This study is based on actual HKU publication data in the past ten years, and it is
useful for understanding HKU researchers’attitudes toward OA publications and in particular the
longitudinal trends in shifting toward OA publishing within the context of the university’s open policy and
within the global OA landscape.
Keywords Scholarly communication, Open access publishing, Research assessment, OA policies,
Open access (OA), University of Hong Kong
Paper type Case study
Background and purpose
In recent years, fundamental changes have taken place in the scholarly communication
ecosystem in the way research is disseminated and published. The explosion in the number
of open access (OA) journals has had an impact not only on how libraries manage their
collections and budgets but also on how academic researchers submit articles for
publication in academic journals. These changes have been driven by international research
communities. In Europe, UK and USA, higher education-funding bodies believe that
research outputs arising from public funding should be as widely and freely accessible as
Library Management
Vol. 38 No. 8/9, 2017
pp. 488-496
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0143-5124
DOI 10.1108/LM-02-2017-0013
Received 1 February 2017
Revised 12 July 2017
Accepted 14 July 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-5124.htm
488
LM
38,8/9
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