A Case Study of Biomedical Researchers' Publishing Experiences with Open Access Journals
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Hsu, Hua-Yu
Abstract
In recent years, the publication of open access journals (OA journals) in the biomedical field grows rapidly. OA journals emerged in response to library budget cuts and the journal price crisis due to the monopoly of a few major publishers. Today, the idea of open access has been enthusiastically discussed and embraced in some fields. More and more OA journals also appear in the landscape of scholarly publishing. However, how do authors who serve an important role in the chain of scholarly communication understand and perceive open access? Existing research has not studied this question extensively.
This study used a multiple case study design to understand twelve biomedical researchers’ publishing experiences with OA journals, how they chose a journal to submit their papers, and the personal and situational factors influencing their selection of journals. Particularly this study focused on how they perceive OA journals and how their experiences may influence selection of OA journals in the future.
The major findings include the followings. (1) The interviewees’ selection of a journal to submit their papers were based on whether the target journal and the paper to be submitted was a good match, the overall performance of the target journal, and their past experiences. (2) The interviewees learned of the existence of OA journals in two directions – they either knew of the idea of OA first then intentionally looked for an OA journal, or they encountered an OA journal without knowing it was an OA journal. (3) Most of the interviewees chose OA journals to submit their articles mainly because of organizational reasons, e.g., their organizations encourage submissions to OA journals; their specific domains lacked sufficient publication outlets so that OA journal became an alternative for them. (4) Most of the interviewees with negative experiences with OA journals did not intend to publish in OA journals again unless they are pressured to do so. (5) Several conditions encouraged the submission of articles to OA journals, for example, when an OA journal is considered as of high quality even it charges publication fee, when an OA journal is considered as of lower quality but it processes the submissions quickly, or when the interviewee had acquired a positive experience with OA journals. (6) In contrast, some conditions discouraged the submissions to OA journals. For instance, when an OA journal charges publication fee and its process time was longer than what the interviewee had expected, then, even the journal was considered as of high quality, one may hesitate to submit articles to it again, or, when an author is free from outer pressures such as competing for promotion, etc.
Subjects
Open Access
Open Access Journal
OA Journal
Publish Experience
Journal Submission
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-100-P96126004-1.pdf
Size
23.54 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):ed83fcb65a33182f198f26e843a47426