[GOAL] Open access research: some basics for scientists

[Heather Morrison]

As the OA movement continues to gain steam, we are seeing scholars with a background in sciences take a keen interest and even develop surveys and such. While the enthusiasm is welcome, from what I am seeing in several instances now, is that scientists do not necessarily understand how to go about social science research.

A scholar with a background in chemistry doing social science research with no training is not unlike a social scientist with no training in chemistry walking into a lab and playing about (although the potential damages are generally of a different nature).

Scientists doing social science research:

-	should be aware of research ethics requirements - at universities in North America, for example, you must get a research ethics clearance to conduct survey or interview research
-	should understand the methodology used and its limitations
-	should know the area. A poorly conducted survey by someone who is not an expert on the topic surveyed may be more damaging than helpful. For example, the way questions are framed shapes how people understand the topic. Before you develop a survey on open access, you should be aware that there are least two basic approaches (green and gold), and if asking questions about gold, you should be aware that this is not equivalent to the article processing fee business model

best,

-- 
Dr. Heather Morrison
Assistant Professor
École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies
University of Ottawa

http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html
Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca

ALA Accreditation site visit scheduled for 30 Sept-1 Oct 2013 /
Visite du comité externe pour l'accréditation par l'ALA est prévu le 30
sept-1 oct 2013

http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/accreditation.html
http://www.esi.uottawa.ca/accreditation.html