John Wiley & Sons, Inc., today announced the results of an author survey
on open access, with over ten thousand respondents from across Wiley’s
journal portfolio. The research explored the factors that authors assess
when deciding where to publish, and whether to publish open access.
Among the top factors considered by authors were the relevance and scope
of the journal, the journal’s impact factor and the international reach
of the journal.
Over 30% of respondents had published at least one open access paper,
and 79% stated that open access was more prevalent in their discipline
than three years ago. In the survey, an open access article was defined
as “free for all to read, download and share online and the author,
their institution or funding body pays a fee to ensure that the article
is made open access.”
Among authors yet to publish open access, the list of reasons given
included a lack of high profile open access journals (48%), lack of
funding (44%) and concerns about quality (34%). Authors said they would
publish in an open access journal if it had a high impact factor, if it
were well regarded and if it had a rigorous peer review process.
“Our goal was to better understand the opinions and behavior of our
authors towards open access publishing. It’s clear from the survey
results that authors are increasingly embracing this publishing model,
and we have seen evidence of that too in the growth of our Wiley open
access publishing program,” said Rachel Burley, Vice President and
Director, Open Access, Wiley. “The survey results also highlight the
need for open access journals to continue to build a strong foundation
of rigorous peer review, wide international reach and a sharp focus on
quality to respond to the needs that authors expressed in this research.”
The survey, conducted in May 2012, was sent to 104,000 authors who
published research in Wiley journals in health, life, physical, and
social sciences, and the humanities, during 2011. The total number of
authors who participated in the survey was 10,673, representing a 10.3%
response rate.
The responding authors represented a range of international opinions on
open access. While 30% of authors were located in the United States and
10% were based in the UK, other represented nations included Germany
(4%), China (4%), and India (3%).
One in three authors (32%) had already published in an open access
journal. The highest proportion of open access authors came from a
medical background (28%), closely followed by biological sciences (24%),
and 71% were based in an academic setting. In contrast, authors who had
not published open access papers predominantly came from social science
disciplines.
The survey results are available online via slideshare.
