An anthropological emic‐etic perspective on open access practices

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine open access practices using an anthropological view of emics and etics. Design/methodology/approach – An emic‐etic distinction has been theorized in anthropological research for decades. Its insider and outsider views are adopted here to provide greater understanding of open access development. The visions of various groups of academics, particularly faculty scholars and librarians, are explored to identify their different positions on open access involvement as well as the impact of those positions on open access practices. Findings – This analysis reveals that new models of scholarly communication need to cope with existing systems and become sustainable only when the thoughts and behaviors of insiders have been fully understood by outsiders and appropriate strategies have been taken on in practice. Originality/value – A theoretical framework was introduced to understand the practices of open access repositories and journal publishing.