Abstract
ABSTRACT Academic Social Network Sites (ASNS) have grown to become a preeminent location for sharing full text scholarly research articles. This paper examines ASNS within the context of open access by suggesting that the framework of “gray open access” best describes ASNS as sites for the dissemination of published research. To understand why authors share their work on ASNS, this paper reviews library and information science literature, finding trends around desire to expand their works’ reach, appreciation of the ease of using ASNS, lack of knowledge regarding copyright restrictions, and desire to share only the final published version of their work. The paper concludes by suggesting avenues academic libraries can take to address the growth of ASNS as de facto repositories.
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