To gauge the success of current advocacy efforts and to shed light on any trends regarding motivation for choosing to use QUEprints as a dissemination method, authors were asked about their present awareness and use of QUEprints. Advocacy methods so far have included presentations to School Research Committees, reports to Faculty Boards, articles in University and Library Service Newsletters and support has been gained from some School and Department Heads to mandate submission among their colleagues9 .
Over half (57 per cent) of the authors said they had heard of QUEprints; however, only 43 per cent said they knew what QUEprints was. This suggests that hearing about QUEprints does not equate to understanding its purpose. Thus there appears to be a need for further advocacy to raise awareness of and knowledge about QUEprint’s purpose, although there has been partial success in advocacy, as the authors at least recognized the brand, even if they did not necessarily know what the brand stood for.
Having found out about awareness and understanding of QUEprints, the next question related to their use of QUEprints: Have you ever had any of your own work deposited to QUEprints? Just less than half (43 per cent) of the authors said they had sent work for deposit in QUEprints, therefore 25 per cent of the authors who had heard of QUEprints had not yet sent any work for deposit, which suggests that knowing that QUEprints exists does not necessarily mean that all authors will automatically start depositing their work for inclusion. This is reflected in the literature10 .
The research showed that while the authors demonstrated a willingness to deposit work, it was very easy for them to remain detached from their IR. Further research is required to discover ways of engaging the authors in a more proactive way, and embedding the IR within the authors’ work practices.
Conditions and concerns
Clearly, if authors had any concerns that might deter them from sending work for deposit, or they had any conditions which they would like to have met before agreeing to send their work for deposit, it was important to find these out and to address them in the design of future advocacy.