OPEN ACCESS AND SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION : AUTHORS PERSPECTIVES IN THAILAND AND INDIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MSU AND UoH

Sujin Butdisuwan, E Rama Reddy

Abstract


Access to knowledge is fundamental to education and research and creation of human capital upon which the development of societies depend. Libraries play a key role by providing high quality information resources and services. However, factors such as the high cost of commercial e-resources, legal barriers and poor technology infrastructure risk leaving many people in the developing world. There is extensive coverage and ongoing discussion in scientific communities, literature, and on the Internet regarding open access and scholarly communication. The open access movement is supported and advanced by a spectrum of interest groups and activities such as national and international organizations, publishers, individuals, and many special events. While open access is gaining strength and popularity as the new model for dissemination [1]information, there are still many issues not completely resolved such as pricing models, peer reviewing, indexing and impact factors, archiving, and the stability of this new publishing model for scholarly literature. The open access movement has had a tremendous worldwide impact and involves not only the academic and publishing communities but also many other disciplines. This paper is based on a study undertaken by the authors with the financial assistance from the Faculty of Informatics, Mahasarakham University, Thailand. The full report reviewed the existing open access and scholarly communication issues and also tried to know the authors perspective in Thailand and India using survey method with sample from Mahasarkham University (MSU), Thailand and University of Hyderabad (UoH), India.

Keywords


Institutional Repositories; Open Access; Scholarly Communication

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References


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