Facilitating green open access through faculty–library collaboration: A case study from the University of Hong Kong - ScienceDirect

Abstract:  This article presents a case study of a green open access initiative undertaken by the University of Hong Kong Libraries in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering. The project aimed to increase the availability of journal articles in HKU Scholars Hub, the institutional repository, by collecting and depositing accepted manuscripts. Publication records from 2020 to 2024 were identified and matched with external open access versions using the Unpaywall API. Publisher self-archiving policies and embargo periods were identified using the Sherpa API. Current Faculty members were then invited to submit accepted manuscripts for eligible publications.

Of the 1491 publications targeted for manuscript collection, 840 accepted manuscripts were successfully collected, representing 56.34% of the target set. Among these, 738 manuscripts had passed their embargo periods and were uploaded to HKU Scholars Hub, while 102 were scheduled for later release. After deposit, the shared articles recorded an average of 10.73 downloads.

The project demonstrates that Faculty–Library collaboration, supported by practical tools for policy checking and open access versions identification, can improve green open access coverage at scale. It also highlights challenges, including author uncertainty about open access concepts, copyright concerns, and difficulties in locating post-prints after publication.