Assessing the Scholarly Communication Attitudes and Practices of Faculty: Lessons from a “Failed” Survey

Abstract

INTRODUCTION This paper reports on a survey administered to faculty at Chapman University to assess their knowledge, attitudes, and practices with regard to scholarly communications, in order to help the new scholarly communications librarian plan appropriate library programs and services to meet faculty needs. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM The survey was adapted from the Institute on Scholarly Communications’ “Faculty Involvement in Scholarly Communications Opportunity Assessment Instrument” for a faculty audience in early fall 2013. It “failed” in that it faced long administrative delays and was met with a low response rate when finally published in December 2013. However, the responses received were enough to deduce general trends and gaps in faculty knowledge about scholarly communications, including a misunderstanding of the meaning of open access, misconceptions about its quality, concern with how publicly accessible research and data could be used by others, and a desire for information on how to manage, preserve, and share data. NEXT STEPS Both the survey results and the obstacles encountered in the survey’s administration provided important lessons in how to structure, market, and assess the impact of future scholarly communications discussions, such as those surrounding the university’s upcoming institutional repository. While the survey itself might have “failed,” these lessons can be applied to future endeavors in order to contribute to the long-term success of the faculty and the university as a whole.