Posts tagged with open access in Blog Tiny Studies

The findings from a qualitative study on users of open access (OA) books reveal a wide range of needs and impacts. The data comes from two collections: one of OA books published by Lever Press (https://www.leverpress.org/) and the other of backlist books turned OA by the Big Ten Open Books project (https://bigtenopenbooks.org/). While the samples are small, the findings highlight the importance of qualitative approaches to capturing the variety of reader and, more broadly, user experiences.

We know very little about how authors and readers experience the impact of open-access (OA) books. Usage metrics and citations obscure their humanity. In Fall 2023, we interviewed authors and readers of monographs published as OA by the University of Michigan Press. Our qualitative research project documented their experiences, used AI to discover patterns in their responses, and provided evidence-based recommendations for improving OA book publishing.

University of Michigan Press is exploring different ways of communicating the “impact” of the open access program, Fund to Mission, with impact defined as “provable benefits on the real world.” As part of this exploration, the Press worked with Zhenkun Lin, a doctoral student from the U-M College of Engineering, under the auspices of the Rackham Doctoral Internship initiative. The charge for Zhenkun’s project was very broad: Please explore the data we have gathered and see if it suggests any interesting patterns or opportunities for visualizing the program’s impact.