Survey of US Higher Education Faculty 2023, Use of Digital Repositories

This study looks at how 725 faculty from nearly 500 US colleges and universities are using their own and other digital repositories. The study gives detailed data on the incidence and extent of use of the scholars own institution’s digital repository, and use of repositories from other institutions. Data is broken out by 12 personal and institutional variables including size, type or Carnegie class, tuition level and public/private status of the participant’s affiliated institution, as well as personal characteristics such as academic field, tenure status, academic title, gender, income and other variables. The study helps its readers to answer questions such as: who is depositing their journal articles in repositories and how often? Who is using the repositories of other institutions in their research? Which scholars are having publication fees paid for them on their behalf by libraries, academic departments and other sponsors? How satisfied are scholars with their college or university’s open access and digital repository policies? How important is open access to them and how has it impacted their careers? Just a few of this 76-page report’s many findings are: Faculty aged 40-49 were more likely than their older or younger peers to put their research into a repository. The tendency to place publications in repositories was closely and positively related to a researchers’ personal income. The more prestigious a faculty member’s title, the greater the likelihood that a publication fee had ever been paid on the faculty member’s behalf.