Focus Group – Graduate Students’ Voice – Open Access Week
10/15/2011
|
Question |
Time Estimate |
| – What is your favorite news website? |
5 mins |
| – Is this site open to the public? Does the site being open play a role in whether or not you access it? |
5 mins |
| – To what extent are journal articles accessible for university students and individuals throughout society in general? |
5 mins |
| – List or Map – How do you define open, in terms of information? What qualities would you include in what it is to be open?
(Questions written for everyone to see. They are then asked to circle or tell us the quality that best describes “open” for them) |
15 mins
|
| – When you think of an open access journal? What quality is the most important? |
5 mins |
| – You have three choices… free open journals, open journals where you have to pay to submit, journals where individuals or institutions need to purchase articles, which one would you choose and why? How could that option be improved? |
10 mins |
| – What do you consider to be some of the strengths of open access journals? |
10 mins |
| – What do you consider to be some of the limitations of open access journals? |
10 mins |
| – To what extent do you consider open access journals sustainable? |
5 mins |
| – To what extent would it be possible to write a good article on their topic using only open access journal articles as sources? Why is it or why is not possible? |
10 mins |
| – To what extent do you feel openness increases the quality of scholarship? (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree) |
10 mins |
| – Projecting yourself two, five years into the future what role do you see open access playing for academia and society? |
10 mins |
| – Have we missed anything… Is there anything that we should have talked about but didn’t? |
10 mins |
| Total Time |
110 mins |
1) You have just written an article and you have three choices:
1) completely free open journals or free open journals where the university would cover the writer’s fee to submit the article
2) open journals where the writer or the grant that is sponsoring him or her has to pay to submit the article
3) Traditional, toll-access journals where institutions and individuals subscribe for access and have to purchase articles, but the writer submitting an article does not have to pay.
Which of these three journals would you choose and what are some of the reasons you would chose this journal (please indicate what would be the most important aspect in making this decision)? How much does the journal status as an open access journal (OA) or toll access journal (TA) plays a role in making your final decision?
All Original Questions – Focus Group – Graduate Students’ Voice – Open Access Week
– What is your favorite legal image, video, or music hosting site? Why do you visit this site?
– Tell us what one of your passions is, and what attracts you to it?
– What is your favorite news website?
– Is this site open to the public? Does the site being open play a role in whether or not you access it?
– To what extent are you supportive of the open access movement?
– To what extent do you consider who produced a digital resource (a page, a picture, a video) when deciding whether or not to use it for a course?
– To what extent are journal articles accessible for university students and individuals throughout society in general?
– When considering where to publish an article, does the openness of the journal play a role in your decision?
– To what extent do you think openness encourages innovation?
– Have you ever felt your work had been plagiarized? Please describe the situation.
– To what extent do you feel (from 1 to 5) a strong need to protect creative works with copyright?
– To what extent do you feel information should be open and accessible to anyone in the world?
– Projecting yourself two, five years into the future what role do you see open access playing for academia?
– What do you consider to be some of the limitations of open access journals?
– To what extent do you consider open access journals sustainable?
– To what extent do you consider open access to be part of a movement? Perhaps part of a broader movement? What is it?
– To what extent do you feel that copying an image, an audio file or a video file from a website is a violation of copyright?
– To what extent do you feel it is different whether or not the purpose for borrowing a resource is for profit or non-profit objective?
– What are some of the feelings that you experience when you are not able to access a resource (journal article) when you need it?
– To what extent does open access or openness to information help or hurt the development of countries?
– All things considered, can openness improve academia?
– Suppose you had one minute to talk with someone about the importance of openness, what would you say?
– To what extent do you feel openness decreases the quality of scholarship? (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree)
– To what extent do you feel openness is unfair to traditional paid subscription journals?
– Have we missed anything… Is there anything that we should have talked about but didn’t?
– (Silent) List (Give them a paper) — what are some problems with openness, what are some of the positives aspects of openness?
– To what extent do you feel the current publication system is fair? (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor). [(also on a list) — what could be improved……]
– In terms of promoting open research what grade (from A to F) would you give the University?
– In terms of promoting open research what grade (from A to F) would you give the United States government?
– In terms of promoting open research what grade (from A to F) would you give your department?
– In terms of promoting open research what grade (from A to F) would you give grant giving agencies?
– You have three choices… free open journals, open journals where you have to pay to submit, journals where individuals or institutions need to purchase articles, which one would you choose and why? How could that option be improved?
– Pictures of different industries… (runway show, journal articles, movie, comedian, book) which one, in your opinion, would have the strongest copyright protection in the US and why?
– Draw an emblem or a design pattern (as good as you can, you don’t have to be an artist but put some effort into it, perhaps a pattern that could be reused in some way) for five minutes.. .then pass it around to the next person who draws for five minutes… is this a violation of copyright?
– Was that drawing that you received from the person beside you copyrighted? To what extent is the style original?
– To what extent do you think sometimes you borrow ideas and you aren’t quite sure you remember where you heard them or if they are yours, but you use them or build on them anyway?
– Map what qualities come to mind when you think of an open resource? When you think of an open access journal? What node is the most important?
– Close your eyes… How do you imagine academia would be different if all journals were open?
– Do a task before coming – Search for 4 relevant articles on a topic of your professional interest – were the most relevant articles open for you to use without your university access? Were any relevant articles open? How much did each cost for an individual?
– Think back to the last papers you wrote, how extensive was the contribution of open access journals articles?
– To what extent would it be possible to write a good article on their topic using only open access journal articles?
