Despite the growing body of literature on open materials, prior research to our knowledge has not investigated students' perceptions of open versus copyright-restricted textbooks through a direct, comparative approach. Further, there is little empirical investigation on students' perceptions of texts they have not previously seen or used. To learn more about students' perceptions of open textbooks, both as they compare to one another and as they compare to copyrighted textbooks, we carried out a series of studies that examine students' perceptions of these materials, specifically in the area of psychology. In Study 1, we examined college students' perceptions of open and copyrighted textbooks through a single-blind review. In this study, students read hard copies of chapters from open and copyrighted psychology textbooks (one chapter from each type of textbook) and rated the quality of the materials on text clarity, level of engagement with the text, and quality of images, tables, examples, and review questions. Students also selected their preferred chapter and provide a brief justification of their selection. In Study 2 and Study 3, we sought to better understand students' perceptions of open psychology textbooks as they compared to one another (and not compared to copyrighted texts). In Study 2 and Study 3, students reviewed three open psychology textbooks and completed twenty questions from the Textbook Assessment and Usage scale (Gurung & Martin, 2011) for each textbook. Study 2 included two introductory level psychology books and one research methods book, and Study 3 included three introductory level psychology books. Findings for each study will be presented, as well as implications, limitations, and future directions for research on students' review of open textbooks in psychology and open materials more broadly.
