https://repositorio.ufrn.br/handle/123456789/28324

This dissertation aims to propose actions capable of motivating the undergraduate students of the Trairi Health Sciences School of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil) to grant immediate access to the undergraduate final papers deposited at the repository �Biblioteca Digital de Monografias�, taking into consideration the high rate of embargoed papers which remain restricted for one to three years. Regarding the methodology, it is an descriptive research based on the Rational Action Theory. Online questionnaires with closed and open questions and semi-structured interviews were applied to students and teachers, so that the interpretation of the results was based on the Rational Action Theory. Concerning the information collected, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was used for the questionnaire and content analysis for interviews based on Bardin. The results suggest that professors and students understand the concepts of open access and embargo, as well as they realize that the embargo can lead to delays in further studies. Students showed indecision about open access or embargo of the final paper in the Digital Library, while the professors were more adherent to not delay access to their student papers. However, this positive immediate access attitude contradicts the practices, as it was identified that the embargo is an orientation of the professors themselves to their students before make the deposit in the repository, reflecting the strong culture of publishing the final work (elaborated in paper format). Thus, copyright issues relating journals and the fear of losing their originality in particular have contributed to the increase of embargoes. Therefore, the motivations that contribute to the embargo are: future publication, professors� recommendation and fear of plagiarism. In this way, an action plan is proposed for advocating the benefits of immediate open access among professors and students, as well as teaching about tools such as SHERPA/RoMEO and Diadorim in order to help them address copyright issues related to the policies of journal publishers and incentive the auto-archiving of preprints in the repositories.