Open Access & Science Publishing - Results of a Study on Researchers' Acceptance and Use of Open Access Publishing

This Management Report summarizes the main descriptive results of a study onresearcher’s acceptance of Open Access publishing. The study was conducted in2006 by the Ludwig-Maximilans-University Munich, Germany, in cooperation withthe University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The main focus is centered on the questionif and why scientists decide or do not decide to publish their work according tothe Open Access principle without access barriers and free of cost to readers. Withthe responses from 688 publishing scientists it could be demonstrated that the generalattitude toward the Open Access principle is extremely positive. However,many seem to be rather reluctant to publish their own research work in Open Accessoutlets. Advantages like increased speed, reach and potentially higher citationrates of Open Access publications are seen alongside insufficient impact factors,lacking long-term availability and the inferior ability to reach the specific target audienceof scientists within one’s own discipline. Moreover the low level of use amongclose colleagues seems to be a barrier towards Open Access publishing.....