Re: Alma Swan on "Reasons researchers really rate repositories"

From: Sally Morris (Morris Associates) <"Sally>
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:54:24 -0000

I can't help thinking that only looking for positive evidence is not
very scientific.

 

Earlier this year I conducted a survey of members of UK learned
societies in the biological sciences.  I had 1368 valid responses,
and less than half of those respondents knew what self-archiving
was;  36% thought it was a good idea and 50% were unsure.  Just under
half said they used repositories of self-archived articles, but 13%
of the sources they named were not in fact self-archiving
repositories.   29% said they self-archived their own articles, but
once again 10% of the sites where they said they did so were not in
fact publicly accessible sites of any kind.  The access and
convenience of self-archiving repositories were seen as positive, but
there were concerns about quality control, workload for authors and
institutions, chaotic proliferation of versions, and potential damage
to existing journals, publishers and societies.

 

Interestingly, although there was still a significant level of
misunderstanding, the respondents were much more positive about OA
publication - most of them said they supported the idea of OA
journals.  60% said that they read OA journals and 25% that they
published in them, but in both cases around 1/3 of the journals named
were not OA.  While many were in favour of increased access through
OA journals, concerns were expressed about the cost to authors,
possible reduction in quality, and negative impact on existing
journals, publishers and societies. 

 

I hope to publish an article on the findings early next year.

 

Sally

 

PS I really don't want to hear why anyone on this list thinks the
respondents were wrong - I'm just reporting facts!

 

 

 

Sally Morris

Consultant, Morris Associates (Publishing Consultancy)

South House, The Street

Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3UU, UK

Tel:  +44(0)1903 871286

Fax:  +44(0)8701 202806

Email:  sally_at_morris-assocs.demon.co.uk


____________________________________________________________________________


From: American Scientist Open Access Forum
[mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG]
On Behalf Of Stevan Harnad
Sent: 03 November 2008 11:42
To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
Subject: Alma Swan on "Reasons researchers really rate repositories"

 

Les Carr has posted a call:

Looking for Evidence of Researcher Engagement with Repositories

"a collection of success stories - anecdotes of how repositories have
been able to improve the lot of researchers - for appealing to
institutional repository nay-sayers and open access agnostics"

and the redoubtable Alma Swan has, as always, responded with data,
posting:

Reasons researchers really rate repositories
Received on Tue Nov 04 2008 - 22:21:43 GMT