Academic
researchers appear to be warming to the idea of publishing their articles in
open-access journals rather than subscription-only publications. It’s a trend
that would also make libraries and legislators very happy.
The results
of the second annual Taylor & Francis Open Access Survey showed a rising
number of journal authors agree or strongly agree that open access on a website
or online repository provides wider circulation and higher visibility than
traditional subscription journals. These authors want to attract more eyeballs
to their articles and are willing to give up some control to get it.
Almost half
of the 7,936 respondents (who had published a total of 28,219 articles in the
past year) were amenable to publishing their work openly as “green open
access,” which usually involves the original article version submitted for
publication and not the reviewed, edited version.
Some 71% wouldn’t
mind if their work was reused for noncommercial purposes without their
permission, as long as they were credited and the user followed whatever
Creative Commons license had been applied to the article. Of those who had
placed an article in an open repository, 46% did so out of a strong sense of
“personal responsibility to make my work freely available.”
Legislators
at the federal level have been pushing for more open access to research
journals, at least those featuring research underwritten by tax dollars or
performed using tax-supported campus facilities or materials.
Libraries,
especially those that serve a largely academic clientele, are concerned about
the increasing subscription costs for journals, both print and digital, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Many campus libraries, such as the one at Cornell University, have had to cut back on subscriptions.
