Open Access in the History of Science Research

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, the open access initiative for scientific information has been taking place at an international level, with open access repositories being developed. Worldwide, user opinions are being surveyed, with prevailing themes in published surveys including technical readiness, information literacy, and legal aspects.

In this survey, we would like to learn more about the methods used by historians of science for searching and managing scientific information, channels for disseminating information, and the evaluation of open access in specific research fields of science.

The results of the survey will be presented at the 5th International Conference of the European Association for the History of Science symposium The tools of research and the craft of history, and the conclusions will be reflected in the guidelines of the Bibliography and Documentation Commission (a structural unit of the International Society for the History of Science and Philosophy) on open access, aiming to optimize the dissemination of scientific information and preserve the scientific heritage.

The survey was developed with valuable comments provided by Dr. Gintarė Tautkevičienė, eIFL-OA coordinator of the Lithuanian Scientific Libraries Association; materials from the eMoDB.lt: Opening Electronic Science Databases for Lithuania project and the Study on Open Access Journal Publications and Institutional Repositories for Disseminating the Scientific Outputs of Lithuanian Research and Study Institutions were utilized, along with other sources on open access.

We kindly invite you to actively express your opinions and preferences; we will be waiting for the survey responses until September 15 of this year.

The survey is anonymous.

Respectfully

Dr. Birutė Railienė

Chair of the Bibliography and Documentation Commission (a structural unit of the Science and Technology History Section of the International Society for the History of Science and Philosophy)

Email: b.railiene@gmail.com

Glossary of Open Access:

Open Access – free and unrestricted internet access to research outputs (scientific articles, research data, conference papers, and other published materials), which can be freely read, copied, printed, downloaded to personal storage devices, distributed, searched, or linked to full-text articles without violating copyright.

Bibliographic Style (or bibliographic entry) – a set of required, standard-formatted data necessary for the identification and description of a document, part of a document, or several documents (Encyclopedia of Librarianship). Many descriptive styles (e.g., APA, MLA) and their variants have been developed. An international standard has been established for citation guidelines of information resources in bibliographic references (ISO 690:2010).

Institutional Repository – a digital archive of intellectual products in which the scientific output and academic information of that institution or several institutions are stored, disseminated, and managed.

1. How do you most often receive the latest scientific information in your field (you can select multiple options):

2. What other methods, not mentioned earlier, do you often use to receive the latest scientific information in your field?

  1. lazy
  2. review of archive card catalogs

3. How do you obtain full-text documents for your research (you can select multiple options):

4. What other methods, not mentioned earlier, do you often use to obtain full-text documents related to your field?

  1. from colleagues in lithuania; through p2p networks
  2. lazy
  3. i am sharing information with my colleagues, i am copying their files.
  4. copying archival documents

5. What bibliographic citation style or standard do you most commonly use when preparing scientific works and publications:

6. What other, not previously mentioned, bibliographic citation styles do you often use in your scientific articles and publications?

  1. such as required by the journal, book, etc. editorial.
  2. i prepare publications according to the requirements of publishers.
  3. none

7. Does your institution promote publishing scientific research in open access journals?

8. Are your published scientific works openly accessible (you can choose multiple options):

9. Is there an institutional repository at your workplace?

10. Which institution do you represent?

11. Your age

12. Which country do you currently live in?

  1. lithuania
  2. in lithuania
  3. in lithuania
  4. lithuania
  5. lithuania
  6. in lithuania

13. In which field of science are you conducting historical research (you can select multiple options):

14. In which scientific field do you most often conduct historical research:

15. If you decide to share your experience or have recommendations regarding open access, we would love to hear your opinion. Thank you sincerely for your time.

  1. the open access movement is gaining strength; but not as quickly as one would like.
  2. the dream is for the sources stored in the archives to be accessible.
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