An anthropological emic-etic perspective on open access practices

• Published in: Journal of documentation Vol. 67; no. 1; pp. 75 - 94
• Main Author: Xia, Jingfeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bingley Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01.01.2011; Emerald
• Subjects: Behavior; Cross Cultural Studies; Cultural Context; Culture; Design engineering; Documentation; Electronic publishing; Exact sciences and technology; Field study; Indigenous Knowledge; Information and communication sciences; Information science. Documentation; Innovations; Intellectual Disciplines; Internet access; Library and information science. General aspects; Linguistics; Methodology; Open access; Periodicals; Phonemics; Phonetics; Repositories; Scholarly communication; Sciences and techniques of general use; Strategy; Studies; Use and user studies. Information needs; Vision; Communications; Open access publishing; Electronic publishing; Use study
• ISSN: 0022-0418; 1758-7379
• DOI: 10.1108/00220411111105461

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine open access practices using an anthropological view of emics and etics.Design methodology approach - An emic-etic distinction has been theorized in anthropological research for decades. Its insider and outsider views are adopted here to provide greater understanding of open access development. The visions of various groups of academics, particularly faculty scholars and librarians, are explored to identify their different positions on open access involvement as well as the impact of those positions on open access practices.Findings - This analysis reveals that new models of scholarly communication need to cope with existing systems and become sustainable only when the thoughts and behaviors of insiders have been fully understood by outsiders and appropriate strategies have been taken on in practice.Originality value - A theoretical framework was introduced to understand the practices of open access repositories and journal publishing.