Whose Research is it Anyway? Academic Social Networks Versus Institutional Repositories

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Looking for ways to increase deposits into their institutional repository (IR), researchers at one institution started to mine academic social networks (ASNs) (namely, ResearchGate and Academia.edu) to discover which researchers might already be predisposed to providing open access to their work. METHODS Researchers compared the numbers of institutionally affiliated faculty members appearing in the ASNs to those appearing in their institutional repositories. They also looked at how these numbers compared to overall faculty numbers. RESULTS Faculty were much more likely to have deposited their work in an ASN than in the IR. However, the number of researchers who deposited in both the IR and at least one ASN exceeded that of those who deposited their research solely in an ASN. Unexpected findings occurred as well, such as numerous false or unverified accounts claiming affiliation with the institution. ResearchGate was found to be the favored ASN at this particular institution. DISCUSSION The results of this study confirm earlier studies’ findings indicating that those researchers who are willing to make their research open access are more disposed to do so over multiple channels, showing that those who already self-archive elsewhere are prime targets for inclusion in the IR. CONCLUSION Rather than seeing ASNs as a threat to IRs, they may be seen as a potential site of identifying likely contributors to the IR.

Exploring the factors influencing continuous usage intention of academic social network sites

“…First, as this study shows that expectation confirmation is the most important factor in ASNS users' satisfaction, stakeholders should further study and understand user expectations in the mobile Internet age (Zhou et al , 2017; Lau et al , 2020; Cheng et al , 2020; Fong et al , 2020). For example, as posting and disseminating research output is one of the purposes of ASNS users, it seems that researchers prefer more to deposit their work in ASNSs than in the institutional repository because researchers tend to make their research more disposed over multiple channels to improve visibility and citation (Eva and Wiebe, 2019). To remedy this problem, academic libraries can help promote the content of the institutional repository to ASNSs, attracting users to use their services in addition to ASNSs.…”

La difusión de la producción científica en el ámbito de las Humanidades: el caso de la Universidad de León

“…En España, Ortega (2015b) también mostró cómo los investigadores de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales del CSIC eran los que más utilizaban Academia.edu mientras que en el resto de disciplinas se usaba más ResearchGate. El menor uso observado del repositorio en relación con las RSA en esta investigación también coincide con otros trabajos previos (Borrego, 2017;Eva y Wiebe, 2019;Mason, 2020;Orduña-Malea, 2020). Esta circunstancia debería ser motivo de preocupación para los responsables de repositorios institucionales, que ven cómo su esfuerzo por poner a disposición de sus investigadores servicios de preservación y difusión de la producción científica son infrautilizados, pero también podría servir para observar y aprender de las RSA e incorporar a los repositorios aquellos elementos que pudieran facilitar su uso y adaptarse a las necesidades y preferencias de los investigadores (Fernández-Ramos y Barrionuevo, 2021).…”