Open Access dissertation proposal at UW's Ischool

This could be a very interesting discussion, here are the details:

On Tuesday, May 29, Phil Edwards will be defending his dissertation proposal, from 12:00pm-2:00pm in 420 MGH

Characterizing scholars' participation in open access initiatives
through an analysis of the lifecycles of scholarly works

ABSTRACT: In recent years, mechanisms for distributing scholarly
products--e.g., scholarly articles, working papers, datasets from the
social and physical sciences, theses and dissertations, course
materials, and locally-held library collections with research
value--have increased dramatically in variety. Open access (OA)
publishers (such as BioMed Central), electronic theses and dissertation
archives, electronic course reserve and management systems, and
institutional repositories have emerged to complement traditional
methods of pre-print, monographic, and periodical distribution offered
by university presses, professional organizations, and for-profit
publishers. Several persistent challenges--the scholarly publishing
crisis, efforts inspiring greater participation in open access
initiatives, and the roles of libraries and librarians in this
process--reflect our relative ignorance of how and why scholars do or do
not incorporate participation in open access initiatives into their work
practices. The main question guiding the current study, therefore, asks
how scholars traverse the landscape of modern scholarly communication in
the context of their professional lives.