Forging a New Path: Faculty Buy-In for the Institutional Repository and Open Access Publishing

Many institutions with institutional repositories have had difficulty getting faculty buy-in to add their content to the institutional repository. The University of South Florida St. Petersburg (USFSP), a separately accredited institution within the USF System, has experienced significant buy-in from its faculty for depositing materials in the institutional repository, known as the USFSP Digital Archive. In a small institution of 5000 students, we have established collections for over one quarter of our faculty, with almost 1400 separate submissions in only two years. Faculty have also developed an understanding of and appreciation for open-access publishing and now consult with the library before signing licensing agreements with their publishers; many have succeeded in retaining greater control over their intellectual property because of these negotiations. Two open-access journals have also been established by faculty in the USFSP Digital Archive, one showcasing faculty work and the other student research. Faculty have also begun to include altmetrics from the institutional repository as part of their tenure and promotion packets. In this session, we will present the service model that has led to such wide-scale adoption of the institutional repository and open-access publishing among the faculty of USFSP.