Mediação da informação e fluxos informacionais no processo de autoarquivamento dos Trabalhos de Conclusão dos Cursos de graduação no Repositório Institucional da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The discussions about a more social scientific communication - that is, moredemocratic and open access - emerged in a context of crisis in scientificjournals,where the idea that only a few people could access scientific knowledge, whichwasmostly produced with public funding, was no longer sustainable. In this context, in2010, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) implementeditsInstitutional Repository (IR) with the aim of making its scientific output availabletosociety as a whole, in line with the guidelines of the Open Access and OpenScienceMovement. The population of this repository, specifically regarding undergraduatefinal projects (TCC), is currently carried out through self-archiving. Basedonexperiences during the library validation stage, a high number of rejectedworkswasobserved, making the process less efficient and delaying the availabilityof theseworks. This situation highlighted the need for this research, whose general objectiveis to investigate how information mediation and informational flows occur intheprocess of depositing undergraduate TCCs in UFRN’s Institutional Repository(IR-UFRN). This is a qualitative study, based on a case study, with datacollectioninvolving document analysis, a questionnaire applied to 2024.1 graduates, andaninterview with the manager of UFRN's Institutional Repository. The analysisof resultsused descriptive statistics and Bardin’s Categorical Analysis. Thefindingscharacterized the self-archiving process based on institutional documents, whereinconsistencies in identical information presented in different documentswereidentified, as well as the absence of aspects that should have been addressedintheanalyzed documents. Furthermore, the questionnaire revealed the mainchallengesand gaps faced by students during the process, primarily related toalackofknowledge about mandatory elements and insufficient depth in the deposit tutorial onkey issues to support the students. The interview with the manager clarifiedthat theself-archiving process is also hindered by institutional issues, indicatingthatimprovements must stem from collaborative actions across varioussectors.Therefore, through triangulation of the results, the research identifiedexistingmediation actions, proposed new measures to address student difficulties, deepeneddiscussions from the interview on the need to institutionalize the repository, andultimately proposed an intervention to improve the process. This resultedinanewdeposit tutorial model encompassing all specificities and informational needs.