Evaluating the effectiveness of the mandatory policy in a scientific repository: Castelo Branco Polytechnic Institute – Portugal, a case study

Abstract

Introduction: It presents the results of a study on the effect of the adoption and implementation of the Policy Repository Document (PDD) at the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco - Portugal (RCIPCB) Scientific Repository. Methodology: The work was divided into two parts. The first part concern the position of teachers/researchers on the PDD and the deposit of their scientific papers in the Repository; the second part is related to the RCIPCB's performance as such. The study was conducted by applying an online survey to teachers/researchers - IPCB (n = 505) - subject to a descriptive statistical analysis. Results: 96.6% of teachers/researchers claimed to know the RCIPCB; 66.0% of respondents replied knowing the PDD; only 11.9% of respondents indicated that they filed four more documents of their scientific production in 2011 at the Repository; 50.8% of teachers/researchers referred not having filed any document at the same year. The most cited explanations for such behavior were: lack of time (43.5%); issues related to the assignment of copyright (21.7%); and due to oblivion (17.4%). After the approval of the PDD there was a reduction in the overall number of documents deposited (10.3%) and the number of self-archived documents (44.0%). Conclusions: It is concluded that the PDD has not produced the desired results concerning the self-archive level nor the growth of the Repository using a level of mediated files. We consider the need of additional measures to improve file mediation and self-archive in RCIPCB.