Celebrating the essence of International Open Access Week, UK Libraries shines a spotlight on UKnowledge, its dynamic open access institutional repository designed to make research accessible across various disciplines to a national and global audience.
UKnowledge serves as a centralized hub hosting an array of research outputs, including electronic student theses and dissertations, open textbooks, journals, special exhibits, conference proceedings, and research data. Published works on this platform receive a digital object identifier (DOI), ensuring ease of discovery and citation.
Kyle Bachman-Johnson, UKnowledge Library Specialist, highlighted its distinctive features, including an inclusive file format acceptance, ease of self-submission, and monthly metrics updates for depositors. Notably, the platform champions full-text downloadable contributions, providing a comprehensive range of research material accessible anytime and anywhere.
Since its inception in 2011, the repository has burgeoned, amassing over 47,000 research outputs with users having downloaded materials over 14.5 million times. In the last year alone, more than 1.6 million papers have been accessed in over 200 countries and territories, spanning disciplines from architecture and humanities to engineering and health sciences. Users across diverse geographical locations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, India, the Philippines, and Singapore, regularly access UKnowledge resources, displaying its broad international appeal.
Jennifer Hootman, UK Libraries Coordinator of Digital Scholarship & Data, highlighted the repository's impressive global impact, stating, "The diversity of intellectual content preserved and shared in our institutional repository underscores the global reach of UK scholarship and our unwavering commitment to democratizing knowledge."
Among the most popular papers on UKnowledge are those discussing local health department services, structural racism and the law, and farm machinery field capacities. The repository also catalogs and shares videos from UK researchers, such as a popular instructional video by Professor Gregg Rentfrow explaining how to cure a country ham, viewed over 1.8 million times on YouTube.
Emphasizing the repository's open access licensing, Hootman emphasized the mutual benefits, providing high-quality research access to the public at no cost and amplifying researchers' work through wider dissemination.
As a call to action, UK researchers are encouraged to contribute past or ongoing research to UKnowledge by referring to the "Submit Your Research" page or contacting UKnowledge@lsv.uky.edu.
UK Libraries will host a drop-in event on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at the William T. Young Library lobby, welcoming students, faculty, and staff to explore the myriad open access resources. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet open access librarians, gain insights into publishing scholarly and creative work, access open datasets, and explore open educational resources, including the Alternative Textbook Grant Program.
The University of Kentucky Libraries remains dedicated to fostering access to quality information, supporting academic communities worldwide, and preserving the Commonwealth's history and culture. Further information is available on the UK Libraries website.
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