First Online Focus Group Questions – Open Access (Krueger’s Course)
October 19, 2011
Day 1 –
– What are your top three news websites and the top three websites where you access academic articles? (It could be from an academic journal directly [such as IRRODL] or from an online system for archiving academic journals [such as JSTOR]?
– Are these sites open to the public? Can they only be accessed with a subscription or membership? Does the site being open play a role as to whether or not you access it? Can you think of one major information website that you currently do not use, that you would use if it was open? With this in mind, to what extent is the ability to access information freely on the internet influencing the type of information you consume? (not at all, some (little), a lot, a great deal)?
Day 2 –
For today, it would be helpful if you could share with us what you understand by a) open access journals, b) open content (on the internet), c) open courseware, d) open education resources, and e) open education? If you are not familiar with one of these terms, share with us your lack of familiarity with the term, but give it your best shot and attempt to explain it. What do you think they mean? Please do not read other’s responses or search online for an answer before responding.
Thank you for responding the previous question. If you are curious about the meaning of those terms please visit the following sites: open access journals, open content (on the internet), open courseware, open education resources, and open education.
Now that you have increased your familiarity with the different definitions, a) what do you think of the open access movement? b) What do you consider to be some of the strengths of open access journals? c) What do you consider to be some of the limitations of open access journals? d) When you think of an open access journal, what quality is the most important?
Day 3 –
1) – To what extent do you think open access encourages or discourages innovation?
2) – To what extent do you consider open access journals sustainable?
3) – To what extent would it be possible to write a good article on your topic using only open access journal articles? Why is it or why is not possible?
4) – To what extent do you feel openness increases the quality of scholarship? (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree)
Day 4 –
A – You have just written an article and you have three choices to where you are able to submit your article:
1) to an Open Access Journal where the university would cover the writer’s fee (if there is a fee) to submit the article.
2) to an Open Access Journal where the writer or the grant agency that is sponsoring him or her has to pay a processing fee to submit the article.
3) to a traditional, toll-access journal (TAJ) where institutions and individuals must subscribe to access its articles or must pay individually for every article, but the writer submitting the article does not have to pay (since the university libraries pay a subscription to access the toll-access journal (TAJ), the TAJ does not have an article processing fee).
Which one of these three journals would you choose as the site through which to submit your article 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 or Toll-Access Journal play a role in making your final decision?
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B – Projecting yourself two, five and ten years into the future what role do you see open access playing for academia and society? What do you feel are the strongest factors in bringing about change or maintaining the status quo? To what extent do you think there is a generational difference in support for openness, and open access journals?
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C – To what extent are you aware of who owns the copyright for an article that you publish and the author’s right to retain copyright? Many individuals are not aware of their copyright options. To what extent are you aware of what the SPARC Author Addendum or Creative Commons licenses can mean for you? What license do you usually use for your creative works?
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