Last week, I spoke with Deric McNish, our Director of Undergraduate Research in the College of Arts & Letters at MSU. Our topic was how open-access repository systems like Knowledge Commons might provide our students with a value-added experience to their education. At one point, Deric asked a question that captured my imagination: “Why stop in the classroom?” – the context was a point where we were talking about the amount of “lost knowledge” that happens when we do work not intended for traditional publication venues (e.g., coursework in the case of students) and then forget about the work and leave it to decay deep inside a folder structure on our hard drive.
So if we take Deric’s question of “Why stop in the classroom?” and allow it to be a catalyst for rescuing that work from the depths of Windows 11 or preventing it from being placed only in those locations to begin with, we empower students to share their work with the world and to make use of what have for so long been one-time objects and artifacts in ways that continue to benefit the student and build their body of work
What are the benefits to a student of publishing research work on an open-access repository platform like Knowledge Commons?
Increased Visibility and Reach: Open-access platforms allow research to be freely and openly accessible to anyone with a link. This can significantly expand the work’s reach, potentially leading to more citations, collaborations, and recognition from a global audience. Having a digital object identifier (DOI) assigned to the work provides a permanent link to the work that can be referenced throughout a career, regardless of who one is professionally affiliated with.
Knowledge Sharing: By contributing to open-access platforms, students actively disseminate the knowledge they have produced. This helps other researchers, students, and practitioners build upon the work and fosters a sense of community and belonging, engaging the broader community in the work happening at a university.
Building a Professional Profile: Publishing on open platforms adds to the student’s academic portfolio while building the foundation of a lifelong professional profile of their work and experience. This profile can benefit future academic or career opportunities and connect past experience to future opportunities.
Networking Opportunities: Open-access platforms may lead to connections with other researchers in the field, opening collaborations, mentorship, or invitations to conferences and events.
Rapid Dissemination: Unlike traditional modes of publishing, which can take months to publish, open-access repositories typically allow for faster dissemination of research and ideas, resulting in more timely contributions to the field.
Equitable Opportunities for Publishing: OA repositories that allow for self-publishing can offer opportunities for more equitable distribution of works that may be relevant or contribute to the field but which would be gatekept or otherwise invisible due to traditional publishing processes. It also gives opportunities for works that still need to be finished or finalized to be published or those that one would not otherwise submit to a traditional publishing outlet.
MSU Commons is a research management system at MSU that is part of the broader Knowledge Commons Network. Anyone can register for an account and use the tools, including students and community members involved in your research, creative, and scholarly practice. Find out more and try out MSU Commons at https://commons.msu.edu/