The Viability of Open Access E-theses repositories in Academic Institutions

Abstract

This thesis explores the factors and interactions that affect the process of adopting open-access e-these repositories in academic institutions. As stated in the literature review, the adoption of e-theses at academic institutions has been investigated by a number of researchers; however, the interactions among those involved in managing and developing open-access repositories have not been explored in depth. Therefore, this research elucidates not only the importance of
understanding how these activities take place based on institutional procedures but how they are shaped within the different social worlds of institutional environments. This is the first study about open-access e-theses to apply the social worlds concept in combination with the UTAUT model and both qualitative and quantitative methods to develop a new scenario for open-access e-theses adoption at academic institutions. A mixed methods research design was adopted which facilitated the purposeful selection of participants for interviews. Although both quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection and analysis, the emphasis of this research is qualitative. 221 participants in
online survey from different disciplines across nine universities within the UK and Kuwait and followed by semi-structured in-depth interviews with 43 participants focusing on participants’ opinions and perceptions. The study proposes a model of a two-level interactive views of open access e-theses adoption and development that reflects the process and the relationships. The resulting model helps explain the nature of relations and action across a range of people and things as a result of different commitments of social worlds to institutional activities

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Aberystwyth University
Supervisor	Pauline Rafferty (Supervisor) & Allen Foster (Supervisor)