THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-ARCHIVING IN LIGHT OF THE NEW FUNDING PARADIGM

Abstract

The world is changing ever faster in every field, specially in scientific research and reporting. Twenty six years ago, Cold Ward lead to massive governmental funding in research. From 1945 to 1989, every effort was made by both Eastern and Western political powerhouses to ensure that blue sky – research without clear applications - and applied research would result in political capital gains to feed the public international clash of ideologies. In spite of the fruitless political supremacy claims, the war effort left humanity legacies such as space travel and atom fissuring, not to mention everyday comforts such as Teflon. Yet, the investment paradigm has now shifted again and is oriented towards applicability⁽¹⁾. By the end of the War, research was left at the hands of government funded think tanks, private sector transnational companies, and public and private higher education institutions which are now required by the society to return the public investments in the form of life quality improvements and shared open access knowledge such as institutional repositories. Hence, new forms of research impact assessment are emerging and being put to test.