Re: UOW's open access research repository reaches one million downloads

[Stevan Harnad <harnad@ecs.soton.ac.uk>]

On 24-Sep-09, at 8:12 PM, Gail Ford wrote:

> Kathleen Cowan wrote:
>
>> University of Wollongong's open access research repository,
>> Research Online (http://ro.uow.edu.au/), hits the one million
>> download mark.
>> Read more here: http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW066204.html
>
> is there any way we could use this to inform, encourage our own
> faculty? maybe just a casual handout at the next faculty
> conversation?

(1) Though 1 million hits are welcome, it is not clear how this 
figure compares with the number of hits at comparable-sized 
universities that have had repositories as long as UW has.

(2) Nor is it clear what are the contents of UW's repository. If 
it is like other repositories, it is only capturing a small 
fraction of its annual refereed research output.

(3) The (only effective) way to encourage faculty to deposit is 
to adopt a deposit mandate: See ROARMAP 
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/

Stevan Harnad