How institutional repositories are already working to solve the Open Access problem | Impact of Social Sciences

"Mike Taylor’s recent LSE Impact blog post on Green Open Access (OA) and Institutional Repositories (IRs) provoked us into a defence of IRs. IRs have been around as long at the idea of Green OA, but they have long-since transcended it, becoming important parts of efforts to drive open access, bibliography, citations and data: the A-B-C-D of Open Scholarship. Self-deposit in a repository was not, as many repository advocates would agree, designed as a complete, permanent solution to achieving universal Open Access. It is however an excellent transitional route for individuals, institutions and disciplines to take. It is this message about transition that has been so often lost in Green v Gold debates, a mistake that is being repeated in the post-Finch discussions. We would like to restate the case for what IRs can do for academics and their research, and to respond to some of Mike’s specific concerns about Green OA. The responses correspond to each of Mike’s five concerns ..."