JISC

Key Perspectives Report to the JISC Scholarly Communications Group, December 2008

Report summary

A report to document the findings of a small survey on the availability of academic grey literature to Small And Medium Sized Enterprises in the UK (SMEs). 23 people from SMEs  (under condition of anonymity) were interviewed as well as three related organisations: Business Link, The Federation of Small Businesses and the South West England Regional Development Agency.

The report starts by documenting the various ways universities do carry out their “third mission” duties in reaching out to the business community by offering consultancy work and similar and with a discussion of the challenge of how to make the knowledge contained within universities available.

After a discussion of the variety of SMEs and organisations involved and how they were approached the authors detail the ways the SMEs do interact with universities.  These include practical benefits like using resources and university facilities as well as training opportunities and scouting for potential recruits. They also look at how universities reach out to SMEs.

The key finding is that SMEs require grey literature, but few turn to (or even think of) universities as a possible source. None of the people interviewed had sought literature from universities. The authors also discover that SMEs have trouble contacting individuals within universities who they think might be able to help them.

Likewise, none of the universities questioned had ever supplied grey literature to SMEs. So the SMEs turn to other sources like the web and professional and trade associations – but they cannot supply everything the SMEs need, as the report details.

The discussion highlights the negative perceptions of universities  - particularly with regard to the speed in which they can supply information – within the SME community and the need to make universities both seem and become a more useful resource. They finish by highlighting the fact that the costs associated with the literature at universities, as well as permission barriers, prevent SMEs from using it.

The authors recommend

• A scoping study should be carried out to find out how to help SMEs discover the grey literature that is available
• A scoping study should be carried out to find out how much and what grey literature is out there
• Universities should be encouraged to interact further with SMEs
• Grey literature should be made openly accessible on the web
• The best way to make grey literature available should be determined
• Advice should be provided to the SMEs about Open Access literature

Key points

“SMEs do require access to grey literature of various types and would welcome the  chance to use reports, survey results, theses and datasets that universities could  provide.”

“Two SMEs … had not attempted to access the journal literature, even though they suspected that it contained the information they needed, because they knew that a cost is associated with it.”

“In general, university responses on the issue of grey literature were pretty  unequivocal: they felt they had little to offer SMEs in this respect. This is not  completely true…”
 
"The grey literature should be a resource offered and sought on a far wider scale than… local type of help from universities. The nub is discoverability.”

SMEs often need to use published journal literature, but find it difficult because of subscription barriers and they are put off because of potential costs. Something OA would alleviate.

Even SMEs that do buy journals are severely restricted because they can’t afford to buy as many as they would like.

“The information is critical for economic generation or regeneration of local area. Whilst this is extending the analysis of the value of grey literature to an extreme, it is also undoubtedly true in the sense that the UK’s economy depends heavily, predominantly, on SMEs and a healthy small business sector means prosperity  for any local economy and society.”

Read the full report (PDF)