Carol Silva
September 1, 2022
Carol L. Silva received her PhD in political science & public policy from the University of Rochester in 1988, and is currently an Edith Kinney Gaylord Presidential Professor of Political Science, and the Co-Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (IPPRA) at the University of Oklahoma. Her research focuses on the building and conduct of research programs for transdisciplinary teams, the coordination of resources that encourage and support the achievements of those teams, and contributing to social science discoveries. She is an experienced instructor, and directs research programs in the domains of environmental policy, the intersection of technology and democratic institutions, weather and climate policy, COVID-19 adaptation, and benefit cost analysis/non-market valuation.
Dr. Silva is also an advocate for open access and has made her work openly available through OU’s shared institutional repository, SHAREOK. Her open access articles include "Trust in Government Agencies in the Time of COVID-19" and "Bayesian versus politically motivated reasoning in human perception of climate anomalies."
Why do you choose to publish open access?
Equity and access. I support OA publishing because it fosters the possibility of a more diverse and wider audience for research and creative works. Arbitrary paywall barriers to access do not serve the goals of supporting ingenuity, knowledge growth, and changing the world for good. We live in a complex and rapidly changing world. We need all the good ideas, and all the minds. We do not have time to leave anyone out. Access to new research isn’t a given—locally or globally, and we want folks everywhere to be able to see our work, comment on it, and build on it with their own research and creative endeavors.
Our group was especially motivated to publish as OA given the important timeliness of the topic and the interdisciplinarity of the team. The topic, trust in government agencies in the time of COVID-19, was essential to explore as public officials and decision makers were making choices about their pandemic plans of action. As we faced a terrible pandemic, we also knew that we were in the middle of a public crisis of trust in the abilities of US government agencies. This book explores variations in the public’s trust at various levels of government and agencies with a nationally representative survey conducted in March of 2020. We believed in the importance of publishing this book as OA because of the fast-moving research environment with this time sensitive issue. Publishing OA typically gets the work out into the public domain much more quickly, increases visibility, and helps to avoid duplication of research and allow other researchers to draw on our findings as they conducted their own work in this rapidly changing and volatile research environment.
Did you experience any challenges publishing an open access book, and if so, could you describe them?
Our group did not face any difficulties or challenges in publishing our OA book. We are very thankful that the OU Libraries Open Access Fund was available to us. We appreciate the ease, support, and generosity that was provided to us by OU Libraries.
Do you have any specific advice for other scholars who are considering publishing openly?
Don’t be hesitant to publish OA. The increase in access and visibility is worth it. However, make sure you are working with a reputable journal. Predatory journals are out there, so make sure you know who you are working with.
Plan ahead. There are resources available to help you cover the costs. If you are pursuing contract and grant funding this is a great thing to budget for if the funder allows it-- and many funders do allow it.
Pursuing OA for your work is also a good thing to mention in discussions of “broader impacts” or how you plan to disseminate your work.
Be sure to apply for the OU Libraries Open Access Fund, which can significantly offset the cost of OA publishing!