Usability of Institutional Repositories of Universities and Polytechnics: the perspective of Professors and Researchers in Portugal

ABSTRACT This study aims to demonstrate the importance given to Institutional Repositories (IR), the usability and knowledge of their policies, by teachers/researchers of public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Portugal, in a comparison between Universities and Polytechnics. The study was carried out through the application of a survey, using the Google Forms platform. The answers revealed that the majority of respondents attach importance to the RI (Institutional Repository) (77.0%). However, 2.1% claim little use and 29.7% do not publish it in the RI and do not use the RI. The main reasons mentioned were lack of time (38.9%), duplication of tasks (25.0%) and lack of knowledge about Editors' Deposit Policies (20.5%). With regard to the Institution's Documentary Deposit Policy, 62.4% are unaware of its existence and 35.0% of respondents demonstrate that they comply fully and easily. The article is the most shared document in RI (62.8%), with an annual average of individual deposits of 1-5 documents and 29.9% of the participants use the archive to share their scientific productions. The study allows us to conclude that it is at universities that researchers are less familiar with the dynamics of repositories, they publish less in them. These are the ones that suggest more communication and diverse norms, which encourage greater use of IR.

摘要：本研究旨在探讨葡萄牙公立高等教育机构（Higher Education Institutions，HEIs）的教师与研究人员对机构知识库（Institutional Repositories，IR）的重视程度、使用情况及相关政策认知，并对比大学与理工院校之间的差异。本研究通过谷歌表单（Google Forms）平台发放调查问卷开展。调查结果显示，绝大多数受访者重视机构知识库，占比达77.0%。但仍有2.1%的受访者表示极少使用该平台，29.7%的受访者既未在机构知识库中发布研究成果，也未使用该平台。受访者提及的主要阻碍因素包括：时间匮乏（38.9%）、任务重复（25.0%）以及对编辑存档政策（Editors' Deposit Policies）缺乏了解（20.5%）。针对所在机构的文献存档政策，62.4%的受访者表示并不知晓该政策的存在，仅35.0%的受访者表示能够完全且轻松地遵守该政策。机构知识库中最常见的共享文档为学术期刊论文（占比62.8%），受访者年均个人存档量为1至5份，另有29.9%的参与者使用该存档平台分享其科研成果。本研究最终得出结论：大学中的研究人员对知识库运作机制的熟悉程度更低，且在知识库中发布的成果更少。此类院校更需加强沟通并制定多样化规范，以推动机构知识库的更广泛使用。