Paper short abstract

In this study, we use interviews with Dutch university stakeholders to explore the most important challenges in relation to switching from proprietary to open bibliographic databases, and how they evaluate the maturity of open research information’s ‘organizing vision'.

Paper long abstract

In this exploratory study, we address an under-researched area of open science: the adoption of open research information. We use interviews with Dutch university stakeholders to identify what they consider to be the most important challenges in relation to switching from proprietary to open bibliographic databases, and how they evaluate the maturity of open research information’s ‘organizing vision’. Our analysis shows that even in seemingly progressive and proactive environments, such as the Netherlands, systemic change remains challenging. Longstanding routines, technical dependencies, and embedded practices make it difficult for universities to disengage from proprietary research information databases and their complementary services. Concerns about the long-term viability and further development of open databases become very apparent in the context of collective action dilemmas. Importantly, we find that the platform capitalism framework is not sufficient to explain the hesitancies which we observe. We further treat claims about the platform dominance of proprietary databases as empirical questions and challenge the notion that platforms, through their various strategic moves, have become all too powerful and generate a sense of being “locked-in.” Instead, we highlight the importance of agency, contingency, and variation, suggesting that there remains space for significant change to emerge.