Perceptions of Open Access and Digital Culture by Librarians in Academic Libraries in Israel

Abstract

Digital culture refers to the relationship between humans and technology, encompassing how individuals utilize technology, understand its significance in their lives, and adapt their activities accordingly. This culture manifests in various forms, one of which is through open access to scholarly publications. Over recent years, there have been significant shifts in the perception and engagement with open access among researchers, scholars, academic institutions, librarians, and leading publishers. This chapter aims to explore the intersection between the increasingly prevalent digital culture and the pervasive presence of digital technologies in nearly all aspects of modern life, culminating in what is known as digital culture. It uses the example of open access as a lens to examine one facet of activity within the realm of digital culture, investigating the evolving perceptions and practices surrounding open access scholarly publishing in recent years. A qualitative study was conducted among librarians working in humanities and social sciences academic libraries in Israel from 2017 to 2018 to understand these changes. The primary findings emphasize a positive evolution in the context of open access, illustrating how this shift is mirrored in the activities of academic libraries, as evidenced by the content published on their websites.

1. Introduction

Usually, digital culture is about organizations. Meaning, the way technology influences the organization regarding opportunities to connect people and partners, knowledge about technologies and enables creativity.

Similar to business organizations, the digital culture influences libraries and information centers as well. In these organizations, the technology and digitization have an important role.

This chapter discusses the mutual relations and influences of digital culture and open access to academic publishing. The chapter explains digital culture, digital libraries, open access, institutional repositories, and the way they make our culture digital. Then, the chapter exemplifies the perceptions of librarians who work on academic libraries about these issues. The chapter gives the exact quotations of their answers and explanations about them.

The librarians’ perceptions were examined by a qualitative survey that was conducted during the 2017–2018 academic year. The research consisted of in-depth, semi-structured interviews in order to examine how librarians in academic institutions in Israel perceive the idea of open access of academic publications and institutional repositories, and their awareness of the possibilities inherent therein.

The research population consisted of librarians working in the humanities and social sciences academic libraries. Interviewees were selected using both convenience sampling and snowball sampling. The sample included 15 librarians. The age range of the librarians was 25–60 years, and their seniority in the profession ranged from 3 to 35 years.

Furthermore, the chapter delves into the evolving and changing perception of open access and the role of academic libraries in addressing this issue. It explores how libraries engage in signing agreements with publishers and providing guidance to researchers on financial considerations related to publishing.

2. Literature review

Digital culture and open access would encompass the exploration of how digital technologies are reshaping cultural production, consumption, and distribution, as well as the ways in which content is made freely available online.

2.1 Digital culture

The digital technology influences a lot on humans’ life. It simplifies the way to connect with people via variety of media communication, and in a private manner or in a group. In addition, it makes connection faster than on the past and continues to become faster and sophisticated all the time. These changes enable one to connect faster in a variety of ways, to study online courses, read books and articles, keep in touch with people, plan trips, book tickets, listen to music, use library catalogs, connect with scholars, and participate in conferences—which improve scholarly communication, and much more [1].

When speaking about the connection of technology and humans, it is important to realize that this connection and the influence of technology are driven by organizational culture that enables it. People are part of a certain system that enables to develop a culture that uses technology in many aspects of life [2, 3].

2.2 Digital culture in libraries

The culture is digital in schools, libraries of all kinds, and not just in business organizations. It seems that culture becomes digital. It is not just a manner of using technology and digitized materials, it becomes a culture that expect it, look for it, read, study, teach, and play with digital things.

Digital creates culture and influences culture in the twenty-first century and creates a completely different way of information seeking, social connectivity, expectations, and opportunities. It is very important for organizational innovation [4].

When we speak about digital libraries, we speak about an online library, a digital repository, or a digital collection. Digital objects can be objects that were created digitized or print files that were digitized. There are different kinds of digital libraries, different ways for retrieving information, different storage, and in general different scopes [5]. Digital library is a library where we can get access to electronic databases, digitized materials like articles, photographs, music, and movies, and each of them has a way to retrieve information, print, and save. We can find different types of digital libraries, just like in academic libraries, where there is an access to electronic databases by subscription or open access databases. Public libraries have access to digital books in different platforms. The issue of digital culture can be analyzed from different points of view and different categories. One of these categories is the open access to scholarly publishing.

2.3 Open access to scholarly publishing

The literature defines “open access” as “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions” ([6], p. 4). Taubert and Weingart [7] explain:

Libraries traditionally provide access to research literature by acquiring, collecting, organizing, and indexing publications. They are the most important units on the demand side with respect to academic publications, and they acquire them through public funding. Libraries thus ensure continuous funding of the publishing companies and are a central element in the financing of the publication infrastructure ([7], pp. 6–7). Researchers forecast that open access publishing may become a central responsibility of academic libraries by the year 2034, sparing us from technological and financial constraints [8].

Open Access has had substantial impact on the role of libraries and librarians, shifting their focus away from being gatekeepers of information toward becoming active players who support the scientific and scholarly information being produced at their institutions and aiding its dissemination. It has been essential for them to acquire new skills and reinforce their abilities for these tasks while establishing publication and archival infrastructure and reallocating financial resources to providing access, rather than just paying for it [9].

The increasing adoption of an economic, profit-oriented model by large academic publishing houses and other changes in scientific publishing since the 1980s have led to an explosion of costs for libraries [10]. However, libraries’ budgets did not grow, preventing them from absorbing the increase in price. Therefore, libraries were and are forced to restrict their activities in acquisition and collecting [6, 11].

It is important to note, however, that open access to research publications can also have some detrimental consequences for academic and research libraries because they create a situation in which financial control moves from the librarians to the researchers who are publishing or the institutions that fund them. This leads to a reduction in the library budget because libraries are no longer the only ones who receive funding for subscribing to databases and journals from the academic institution, there are others who control the budget and decide how to allocate it, without reference to the library. Thus, we have a situation in which, on the one hand, the academic libraries support the open access approach, promote it, and assist it, but, on the other hand, this activity saps at their power and hurts their budget.

The global Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC, see https://sparcopen.org/) promotes the open sharing of research reports and educational materials. The SPARC is driven by a commitment to democratizing knowledge by making it more accessible, and opening pathways to discovery with the goal of improving the return on investments made in scholarship. In its role as a catalyst, SPARC collaborates with all parties in the process: from authors and publishers to students, libraries, policymakers, funders, and even the public. Partnering with a global network of libraries and research institutions around the world, the coalition begins with the opportunities created by the Internet and promotes the infrastructure and cultural changes needed for open access to become the default mode for scholarship and education. Their strategy focuses on lowering the barriers that hamper accessing, sharing, and using knowledge [12].

Open access publishing is primarily an online method for disseminating research without any restrictions to access. Although most open access journals impose no restrictions on use, some do, such as permitting only noncommercial use. For that reason, open access publishers need a new business model because they receive no revenue from readers. Some publishers sell advertising in journals or find creative ways to offer pay-for-use services associated with their publications. Others generate revenue by charging authors for publication. Another option is to require payment for the most recent articles and release them for free public access only after a set period of time has passed (known as Delayed Open Access (OA) ([13], p. 362). Hinchliffe [14] exemplifies four categories of OA publishing models: transformative agreements; pure publish agreements; subscribe to open; and membership models.

Before setting policies for funders, planning infrastructure, or budgeting subscriptions, it is necessary to understand open access and its growth [15]. The concept of open access first developed among scientists and researchers in the exact sciences and natural sciences, and its status is stronger in those fields than it is in the humanities and social sciences [16]. It is not surprising, therefore, that open access publication is considerably more common in the life sciences and exact sciences [17]. Nevertheless, the social sciences and humanities have also experienced a significant increase in OA publications since 2006. Research has shown that 85% of researchers in these fields recognize the importance of open access publishing and would be willing to submit their articles to an institutional repository, if their institution was to request it [18, 19]. In 2013, scholars in the humanities established the Open Library of Humanities (OLH), an international project, to provide a way for researchers from these disciplines to publish peer-reviewed studies via OA. Enabling scholars to publish in this unfamiliar, innovative way contributes to collaboration between researchers. The founders of OLH were also attentive to the financial aspects of the project. By reaching financing and cooperation arrangements with major publishers, they were able to significantly reduce the prices that researchers had to pay for OA publishing [20].

Agreements: The importance of the transformative agreements, also known as “offsetting,” “read and publish,” or “publish and read” agreements, is that it has shifted the focus of scholarly journal licensing from cost containment toward open access publication. The “transformative agreement” is an umbrella term of different kinds of contracts. Transformative agreements are more transparent than traditional journal licenses, allow authors to retain copyright, and make provisions to facilitate the management of open access workflows [21].

In recent years, some of the well-known publishers (e.g., Elsevier, Wiley, IntechOpen) have also begun to publish scholarly journals using an OA approach. These journals are being developed in all fields. Rather than charging libraries a high subscription fee for these journals, they estimate the cost of processing each article, until it is published online and included in the relevant repository or database and charge the author of the article or the sponsor of the research an amount sufficient to cover those costs [22]. “cOAlition S announced that after July 2022, only publishers who have provided data to explain their OA fees under one of two ‘price and service transparency frameworks’ will be eligible for their support, and that cOAlition S will support only OA publication fees that are ‘fair and reasonable’” [23].

Between 2015 and 2019, Web of Science (WoS) indexed around 8,000,000 publications, whereas Dimensions indexed about 10,000,000 publications. Among these publications, 43% of WoS publications and 46% of Dimensions publications are open access (OA) publications, as illustrated in Figure 1. The key distinction lies in the distribution between the “green only” and “bronze” categories, with a higher percentage of OA publications in WoS falling under the former category and a greater percentage in Dimensions belonging to the latter ([24], p. 4).

Figure 1.

Percentage of open access publications, by access type and database, 2015–2019 ([24], p. 4).

When examining publications by region as illustrated in Figure 2 in the two databases, we find that the proportion of open access (OA) publications is comparatively alike for North America, Europe, and Central Asia. On the contrary, for other regions, Dimensions exhibits a notably higher percentage of OA publications in comparison with WoS. This variance is particularly pronounced in South Asia (+57.9%), Latin America and the Caribbean (+36.6%), the Middle East and North Africa (+33.5%), and to a lesser degree, Sub-Saharan Africa (+12.4%) ([24], p. 5).

Figure 2.

Percentage of open access publications, by region and database, 2015–2019 ([24], p. 5).

2.4 Institutional repositories

Green OA journals can be accessed through institutional repositories. A study published by Pinfield et al. [25] argued that these repositories are one of the most important developments that the twenty-first century has introduced into the world of research. A study examining the evolution of OA repositories from 2005 through 2012 shows that they began to emerge in the United States, England, Germany, and Australia, followed by Japan. In 2010, the trend began to appear in other east Asian countries, especially Taiwan, as well as in South America, especially Brazil, and in Eastern Europe, especially Poland. Archives have also been developed in France, Italy, and Spain, but their penetration in China and Russia has come very slowly.

According to the Directory of Open Access Repositories (DOAR) compiled by the University of Nottingham, UK, as of May, 2023, there are 6027 repositories around the world, as illustrated in Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Growth of OpenDOAR 2023.

DOAR’s website gives us statistics about the number of repositories by country, by content types, and by content subjects software platforms [26]. Indeed, institutional repositories are gaining momentum at academic institutions around the world [27].

Open access is a platform for publishing research in journals with a different pricing method than the traditional method of journal publishing, which requires academic libraries to purchase subscriptions. Conversely, institutional repositories do not deal with publishing at all; rather, they preserve existing publications and make them accessible to the various users by centralizing the institution’s research publications in a way that allows users easy access [28]. These two issues are important because as researchers collaborate and develop multidisciplinary fields of research, the amount of research communication between scholars—conducted through collaboration at conferences, in professional societies, and research groups—is growing as is the quantity of papers published. The goal of OA is to change, at least in part, the current situation in which scholars who are seeking promotion must publish their research in journals produced by the major publishers who dominate the market, and academic libraries are required to pay increasingly large sums of money for subscriptions to databases and scientific journals operated by these publishers [28, 29].

3. Methodology

A qualitative survey was conducted in order to examine how librarians in academic institutions in Israel perceive the idea of open access of academic publications and institutional repositories and their awareness of the possibilities inherent therein.

3.1 Design and methods

During the 2017–2018 academic year, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the librarians. The 20–30-minute interviews were held in a relaxed atmosphere, in the participants’ workplaces. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. In the data analysis phase, the interview transcripts were sorted and categories constructed. The categories make it easier to interpret interviews’ answers and exemplify them to the readers.

3.2 Research participants and sampling

The research population consisted of librarians working in the humanities and social sciences academic libraries. The research was qualitative and based on interviews and information from libraries’ websites. Interviewees were selected using both convenience sampling and snowball sampling. The sample included 15 librarians. The age range of the librarians was 25–60 years, and their seniority in the profession ranged from 3 to 35 years.

3.3 Interview questions

The questions were as follows:

• What do they think about the issue of open access?

• If they think libraries are supposed to support open access?

• Do they think the researchers would cooperate with the libraries and what do they think researchers think about it?

• What are their opinions about institutional repositories? Academic libraries’ role?

• What do they think are the attitudes of researchers about this subject?

4. Findings

The findings suggested that the attitude of Israeli librarians is similar to that of their peers in other countries. In other words, they understand the importance of OA and claim to support it, but in reality, they show reluctance marketing it to faculty members or do something to support it. Librarians realized that publishing in OA journals is difficult because of the high cost and such journals’ allegedly lower quality. They know that some researchers are concerned about plagiarism; others fear that the university will not recognize the prestige and quality of the journals, such that publishing in OA journals will not necessarily be beneficial for advancing the researcher’s rank.

4.1 OA and institutional repositories: librarians’ perspective

From the librarians’ responses, it is clear that they are aware of developments in the academic world and understand the importance of OA and its advantages when it comes to publishing research, alongside the importance they attribute to institutional repositories. In addition, they understand the indirect role that academic libraries play in promoting these developments. It was evident in the interviews that all of the librarians have positive attitudes toward both issues, but they admit that these approaches are not really developing in Israel, and there is little responsiveness in the field.

4.2 OA: attitudes of academic librarians

Librarians working in two different universities expressed very positive attitudes toward this issue and explained its importance well, even though they understand that most of the people involved do not see things as positively as they do. When they were asked to tell what they think about the issue of open access, if libraries were supposed to support it, do they think the researchers would cooperate with the libraries and what researchers think about it, they replied:

This is exactly the direction one should go, and the libraries must be there to support these moves. The agreements that exist today are very problematic and mainly, expensive. The quality journals cost a lot of money, and sometimes there’s a situation in which a researcher at an institution publishes a journal article, and the university has no money to buy the journal (Interviewee no. 1).

…the problem is that researchers do not perceive them good enough, quality enough to publish on them, pay for them and maybe at the end, they won’t be good enough to promote them academically. (Interviewee no. 6).

This is very important. It would be appropriate to have a lot of things open electronically, it could save time and open up research possibilities. Lecturers expect publications to be digital. If there were some sort of world catalog to which everyone would contribute, it would be useful for everyone it (Interviewee no. 9).

The university pays researchers, and gives them research budget. Then it pays again when it purchases the journal in which the research is published; it pays twice and that makes it very hard on the budget, while the prestigious publishers earn a lot with no justification for it (Interviewee no. 15).

4.3 Institutional repositories: attitudes of academic librarians

Several points were raised regarding the importance of institutional archives: they were asked about their opinions about institutional repositories, academic libraries’ role, and attitudes of researchers about it:

Regarding the institutional repository, I see far beyond marketing needs. The libraries should participate in this, it contributes to the visibility of the institution (Interviewee no. 3).

Establishing such a repository is a central activity for a library. The libraries should have been involved in the establishment of institutional repositories that bring together the research of an academic institution, so that searches will find articles coming from the institution (Interviewee no. 14).

We do not have the resources to build such repositories. I think it’s necessary to train people for these research consultant positions, information scientists who are involved in research, this could be a very interesting job in this era, for information scientists who are involved in content to make knowledge more accessible to researchers who would be more involved (Interviewee no. 10).

I’m very much in favor. We have to make everything that can possibly be open in full text available, to make information accessible. We won’t feel that we are losing our prestige as locators of information if we make it accessible to everyone; it’s our job that changes. We can sort, organize, make everything as accessible as possible to users (Interviewee no. 7).

Today, many good, peer-reviewed journals belong to publishers who make money from them. This is closed material that depends on subscribers, and it is out of our control. People should not think that if they have written something, they now need to protect it, rather it is important to understand that it must be made accessible to all. This is both convenient and provides exposure for the researcher and the university. There needs to be a systemic, conceptual change on the part of everyone, on the part of libraries, on the part of faculty and on the part of administration. The concept should be that just as we publish every event and conference, etc. on the university website, we must also publish all research with the university’s name on it (Interviewee no. 11).

The librarians’ responses exemplify awareness of the importance to the issue and its advantages for academic libraries, researchers, the academic institution, and the scholarly publishing. But their responses exemplified the lack of cooperation from researchers’ side and lack of awareness of its benefits and importance because they were not sure that publications of this kind will give them promotion.

5. Changes in academic libraries’ activity in the issue of open access

Since 2020, there can be seen a very big change in the perception of the issue of open access in the academic world. Unlike in the past that academic libraries’ websites did not give any information about open access and ways to publish in open access, for the last 3 years, a change can be seen. Academic libraries in Israel give a detailed information in their websites about open access, explaining how to publish in these journals, details about the article processing charge (APC), and the university involvement in the payment. It is an information and encouragement to use it that we could not see before.

There is a lot of information about publishers who have hybrid journals where scholars can publish in open access journals. These publishers are the well-known publishers who have a high standard of peer review process.

The same librarians who had participated in this research few years before spoke about the big change in this issue since 2020.

There is a change in perception, because in the not very far past, scholars hardly wanted to publish in open access journals because they though they are not qualified enough and therefore won’t be good enough to give them promotion in their academic status. But from different reasons, we can see a positive change from the researchers, the university and the cooperation of the prestige academic publishers (Interviewee no. 6)

… In addition, the publishing in these journals was very expensive, and they couldn’t use their research budget from the university to pay for the very high costs of open access publishing (Interviewee no. 15)

They afraid of plagiarism … and did not cooperate with the library to promote it. In these days we can see a very big change. The researchers can receive help from the university to fund the publishing in open access. The universities acknowledge these journals quality enough for publishing and promotion. Therefore, academic libraries, the Israeli consortium, can sign contracts with publishers. This action enables researchers to pay for the publication in open access (Interviewee no. 1).

The prestigious publishers, from their side, are doing their best in order to have a quality peer review and a plagiarism check (Interviewee no. 9).

In the last few years, we can find all the information about it in the universities’ websites because the universities have agreements with very important publishers and they even allocate budget for it.

How can it be? It seems that since COVID-19, the perception of open access has changed. During COVID-19, there were many restrictions, and therefore the universities allowed users to get access to scientific materials freely from home, at first about the disease and later about other scientific issues [30]. A research of Lee and Haupt [31] has shown that the extent to which a country was affected by COVID-19 had influenced international collaborations among researchers, open access scientific publishing about COVID-19, and later on other scientific subjects.

Before March 2020, academic librarians had already involved in online librarianship. Meaning, they purchased digital books, subscribed to online databases, and supported research with digital technologies. But since the lockdown of 2020, which forced to develop online courses in academic institutions, the librarians were challenged to help academic stuff move their courses online, work on new schedules, create online learning objects, and embed in online courses. The librarians gave support to the academic system in the period of COVID-19 and developed online services for their users, online interaction, and support for learning and leisure [32].

Then even when restrictions were canceled, the open access process has continued. In addition, the publishers realize that the cancelation of subscriptions will continue as the prices increase. Another reason is that researchers realize that open access journals are not necessarily not good enough and that they do have peer review [33]. Of course, not all of them, but the open access journals of the important and influential publishers are in good quality. Unlike in the past that a publication in an open access journal was not good enough to get a promotion, in these days, it is different, and these journals are considered as good as journals that have subscriptions. It is important to notice that most of the journals of these publishers are hybrid journals and not just e-journals. The influence and appearance in the research community are much higher than the open access journals [34, 35].

Therefore, we can see from 2020 that the Israeli Inter-University Center for Digital Information Services—MALMAD, whose role is to serve as a consortium for the acquisition, licensing, and operation of information services to universities and colleges in Israel, signed an agreement on behalf of the eight Israeli universities and forty colleges and research institutes to encourage researchers to publish open access and help them with the budget and even explain the advantages in this kind of publishing, things have changed completely from 2020 [36].

5.1 Few examples from Israeli universities’ websites

Significant changes in the perception of open access publishing have been observed across various websites in recent years. These changes, occurring over a span of 3–4 years, highlight the growing importance, reliability, accessibility, and recognition of open access publications. Notably, shifts in perception and active involvement have been parallel among researchers, librarians, university administrators, and the recognition of the council for higher education in acknowledging the quality of such publications for researchers’ promotion.

Libraries have been instrumental in this transformation, allocating financial resources supported by universities to establish collaborations with reputable publishers. Librarians play a crucial role in facilitating accessibility and guiding researchers on the diverse publication options available. As part of their services, library websites feature lists of publishers, discounts, precautions against predatory journals, information on open access conferences, and more.

“Discounts for Open Access Publications The Libraries and Information System is Working for You.

The costs of publishing in open-access journals can be high for researchers. Therefore, the Libraries and Information System continues to make efforts to sign agreements that can enable Bar Ilan researchers to publish their works at reduced costs or no cost at all … .The Libraries and Information Division has signed agreements with the following publishers … Tools and Tips for Publishing Open Access Articles …”

Bar-Ilan University https://lib.biu.ac.il/en/node/1802.

“What is Open Access (OA)?

Up until recently scientists and researchers published their scientific work in journals which allowed only paying subscribers to access their contents, in print or online.

New thoughts about the origin of the money invested in research and who gets the right to read it when published, led to the concept of Open Access and to the principle that the world’s knowledge is more powerful when it is shared.

Open Access means that research outputs are distributed online, free of charge, or other access barriers. The reader is not required to pay in order to read the journal’s content. He can read, download, copy, distribute and print as long as he acknowledges the authors and cites the paper properly.

The library sees great importance in promoting publishing of research in the open access model".

Tel Aviv University Libraries have signed agreements with leading publishers, which allow TAU researchers to publish open-access articles free of charge or with a significant discount.

A list of publishers and journals are included in the Open Access agreements. A guide how to apply….

Tel-Aviv University Libraries—https://en-libraries.tau.ac.il/Open-Access-Libraries

“Open Access Publishing

The following is a list of publishers who grant Open Access publishing discounts to Haifa University faculty.”

Haifa University https://lib.haifa.ac.il/index.php/en/research-teaching-eng/research-teaching-eng-1/open-access-eng

“The library has new contracts for the year 2022 with publishers, for publishing articles in Open Access with no APC (article processing charge) to BGU faculty (or with a discount).

Publishing in Open Access can increase the readership and visibility of your research and help to find more potential collaborations and recognition.”

Ben Gurion University https://libguides.bgu.ac.il/guides/open_access

6. Discussion

The discussion in the text centers on the mutual relationship between open access and digital culture. It highlights how open access to scholarly publications compared to subscription access influences information-seeking behavior and expectations for information retrieval. The text emphasizes that open access plays a significant role in shaping the development of digital libraries and digital culture, representing a substantial change in scholarly publishing, academic research, and access to information for researchers and academic libraries. It also mentions that greater awareness of open access within the academic community has promoted the development of digital culture, underlining it as a crucial issue within academia.

On the other hand, digital culture influences open access. Meaning, that in these days, all of us know that we can find almost everything digitally and therefore expect it and promote digital systems. We use many digital systems in many different areas in our life, and it seems that our culture is digital in so many ways. Therefore, there is a mutual fruition between open access which is digital and between the digital world/culture that promote the issue of open access.

Libraries are part of the process of making information accessible to researchers. The libraries are integrating into the practical aspect of open access: they upload publications, theses, dissertations, offer links to search engines and websites, as well as referrals to various journals and tools for free, open use through the library’s website. They are seen as natural allies of faculty members because they pay for digital subscriptions and pay for library technologies which enable one to access the information. Over the past few decades, libraries have had to cut back on the number of journals they purchase, as a result of rising prices. This impairs the accessibility of information to their researchers. Therefore, it seems that they should encourage an open access approach to information.

Studies [37, 38, 39] show that, in general, researchers still have inaccurate, negative conceptions about OA journals. Although many do recognize the importance of OA, they prefer not to publish in them because of the reality of academic advancement. Therefore, it is important that librarians in academic libraries adopt a more active approach and inform researchers about OA publishing options, especially the quality journals, their rankings, the copyrights for these publications, and their contribution to scholarly communication. Clearly, this should be done with recognition of the relevant research fields for the institution, and awareness of the existing organizational culture, especially how the administration perceives this type of publication and the idea of information sharing. Librarians have the strength to change researchers’ negative position in an era when also large and prestigious publishers, who dominate the academic publications market, are publishing OA journals.

Since the 1990s when these ideas were first discussed, they have made significant progress internationally, although there are considerable differences between countries and disciplines. Librarians know that the problem is that faculty members in Israel knew that academic institutions did not recognize research published in OA journals when considering them for promotion and tenure. As a result, they preferred the prestige of the traditional journals, primarily in English [40]. In addition, they knew that OA e-journals required high fees from researchers who want to publish in them, and most of them were not able to pay these amounts, especially because universities did not allocate funds for this purpose. Another argument raised by the interviewees was the fear that researchers feel of losing their copyright for the intellectual content of their publications.

Regarding institutional repositories, a study published by Pinfield [24] argued that these archives are one of the most important developments in the research world in the twenty-first century. However, another study [41] revealed that while institutional repositories are a good channel for publishing articles via the green OA approach, only a small proportion of articles are published this way. Thus, academic libraries do have a role to play in advancing institutional repositories. Some faculty members spoke about the need for libraries to change their traditional role and how they provide services so as to cater for the increasing availability of open educational resources and other OA content. As Liauw (2011, as cited in [42], p. 47) notes:

Creating open access repositories platforms is one good effort, but academic libraries must go beyond their roles of just populating their repositories’ content. Collaborative effort with various communities within and outside the institution will strengthen libraries roles’ and help to increase institutional visibility.

Based on the responses of Israeli librarians, it seems that they are aware of the developments in the academic world and understand the importance of open access and its advantages for research publications, as well as the importance of institutional repositories. In addition, they understand that academic libraries can indirectly contribute to advancing these developments. However, they admit that these measures are not adequately developed in Israel, and there is insufficient responsiveness. In general, librarians are more supportive of an open approach than faculty members, perhaps because they see the issue from their professional perspective and consider the potential for the library to integrate into these processes. Moreover, librarians understand that libraries will benefit indirectly from the adoption of OA. Currently, the publishers of the databases and journals are very influential in the market and have almost no competition.

However, if there were more OA journals, then that would create competition and publishers would be forced to lower prices. Reduced prices would, in turn, help libraries to acquire more journals at more reasonable rates, and they would not need to unsubscribe from expensive publishers, as most libraries have now done. Continuing those subscriptions would lessen faculty members’ disappointment with the library’s resources and its ability to meet their needs.

In the last 3 years, it seems that the academic libraries have become more active in the open access process and signed on agreements with the prestigious publishers to promote this issue. They give a detailed information about how to publish in these journals and different payment arrangements that can be supported by the academic institution. It seems that we continue to see the influence of COVID-19 on open access, but it is much more than just this reason. The world of publishing has changed, the way of payment for publications has changed, the universities allocate budget to the library for open access agreements; otherwise, all these cannot be carried out. It seems that the heads of academic institutions recognize the importance, quality, and changes in academic publishing and allocate budget for it.

7. Conclusion

It seems that the greater awareness to open access in the academic world from the scholars’ side, academic librarians’ side, and academic publishers has promoted and influenced the development of digital culture. As it was written before, there are many issues influencing the development of digital culture, but concerning the academic world, this is one of the most important issues. As academic libraries increasingly engage in open access agreements and initiatives, the landscape of scholarly publishing is evolving, driven not only by the necessity of digital access but also by broader changes in academic culture and budget allocations. The ongoing influence of factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic further underscores the importance of open access in scholarly communication. By embracing open access and fostering a culture of information sharing, academic institutions can navigate the evolving publishing environment, promote broader access to research, and support the scholarly community’s diverse needs.

The conclusion drawn from the text is that there exists a symbiotic relationship between open access and digital culture. It points out that while digital culture influences open access by promoting digital systems and expectations for digital content, open access, in turn, impacts the digital world by fostering the availability of digital information. The text also stresses the role of libraries in the open access process, emphasizing the need for libraries to encourage an open access approach to information and support researchers in understanding the benefits and options of open access publishing. It further discusses the progress made in advancing open access internationally and the evolving role of academic libraries in facilitating institutional repositories and promoting open educational resources. Lastly, it suggests that increased support for open access initiatives, including more OA journals, has the potential to reduce costs, enhance access to publications, and benefit both libraries and faculty members.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.