Unlocking the repository: A strategy for increasing the uptake of green open access

This article uses a recent retroactive open access project undertaken by an Australian university library to reframe attitudes and approaches to author self-archiving. In addition to the view that open access is something to be sought for new research outputs – at the time of publication or immediately after an embargo period – the article proposes an ‘archival’ approach to open access, which treats institutional repositories as historical archives of knowledge to be made freely available to the public through periodic author self-archiving campaigns. Informed by data from the Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative’s Open Access Dashboard, this case study presents an alternative way of approaching the task of unlocking the repository archive through open access drives for older outputs. The article concludes that regular calls for author accepted manuscripts address some of the challenges facing the uptake of green open access by researchers. It demonstrates that it is possible to increase rates of author self-archiving through green open access drives.