Abstract
AimOpen Access fosters the exchange of academic research information by making publications free of charge and, wherever possible, available through open licences and without any technical barriers. Although the Open Access publication model is already well established in the natural sciences, there seems to be more resistance towards Open Access in the social sciences, including the field of vocational education and training research. The research project “Open Access in Vocational Education and Training Research” aims to uncover the conditions influencing the acceptance, dissemination and use of Open Access in vocational education and training research. The project is grounded in a sociology of knowledge approach and in media theory. It comprises of two parts. First, four structured group discussions are conducted as focus groups and analysed using a qualitative content analysis. This paper focusses on this first part of the research project, the implementation and analysis of the group discussions as well as the results thereof. The second part of the research project will be based on an online questionnaire built upon these results. The questionnaire will be sent out to authors involved in vocational education and training research in the second part of the research project.FindingsThe analysis of the group discussions reveals several thematic clusters. According to group discussion participants, the scope of their publications as well as transparent quality assurance procedures in publishing are particularly relevant. The reputation of their chosen publication medium is another central aspect. It also becomes clear that in some cases an information deficit regarding the financing of Open Access publications or accompanying licensing models exists. Finally, participants discuss changing literature research strategies and changes of work and reading practices. The latter being clearly discernible in an increasingly digitalised daily work routine of vocational education and training researchers, while academic research communication is also an important topic discussed.
Highlights
The analysis of the group discussions shows that Open Access (OA) has become an established topic discussed among Vocational education and training (VET) researchers
Participants consider peer review to be a crucial aspect of academic quality assurance
Some participants even suggest a shift of review procedures from traditional peer review to new forms of an open review and OA infrastructures provided by the VET community
Summary
Which technical and structural conditions influ‐ ence the acceptance of OA? e.g. proof reading for quality assurance/impact measurement procedures/IT structures of long-term archiving. Lyotard (2015) describes the value of knowledge as a commodity, meaning that the economisation of knowledge affects the academic research system and the publication and communication structure within (Taubert and Weingart 2016). Readers trust in quality assurance procedures used in the academic research system, which include the widely acknowledged peer review by reviewers with a high reputation in their respective research discipline. It remains debatable whether these quality assurance procedures serve their desired purpose. In line with the first qualitative part of the research project, group discussions followed a set structure with open questions This enabled participants to bring their perspectives and experiences into the discussion while ensuring that important aspects were covered. This selection of participants ensured room for varying attitudes, preferences, experiences and user behaviours with regard to OA
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