Awareness and Attitude Towards Open Access Among Teaching Staff in Higher Education Institutions in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: Open Access (OA) is a mode of publication and distribution of research literature that removes the limitations such as payments, copyright. The impact of OA is clear and evident. Research accelerated to a significant amount due to OA. But the OA use is not same across the board. The adaption and use of OA is based on the awareness and attitude towards OA. Objectives: This study aims to identify how well that teaching community working in higher education institutions in Tamil Nadu, know about the open access model, OA licensing terms, OA tools and their attitude towards open access model. Methods: Survey design was used to conduct the study and a structured questionnaire is used to collect data. Convenience sampling method is adopted for the study. Data collected were organized in Excel and analyzed by using SPSS PASW 18. Cronbach’s alpha is used to check the internal reliability of the attitude items. Frequencies and percentages were used to identify the teaching staffs’ awareness level and attitude towards OA. ANOVA and t-test were used to check the statistical relationship between variables. Results: A total 300 questionnaires were distributed randomly in five higher education institutions in Tamil Nadu and 121 teaching staffs were responded. The top most open access literacy tool used by the teaching staff was Journals and least was E-discussion websites. The top most open access repository used by the teaching staff was Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and least was National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). Majority of the teaching staff are motivated to take full advantage of OA journals and they are of 65.3%. Around 57.9% of the teaching staff agreed on that they understand the licensing terms in OA. Around 68.6% of the teaching staff used to access open access publications. 43% of teaching staff denoted that the IT tools, facilities provided to open access in their institution was not satisfactory. 55.4% of teaching staff mentioned that their friends and colleagues recognize open access publications. Teaching staffs’ attitude towards open access doesn’t have any statistical relationship with teaching staffs’ individual characteristics and their experience in teaching, research and publishing. Conclusion: The study results help the academic libraries, institutions, higher education system, and open access publishers to ascertain the facts and take required steps to promote and strengthen the OA use among the academic community.

Keywords: Open Access, Awareness of OA, Attitudes towards OA

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