Author attitudes to Open Access

The publishing group Taylor and Francis has conducted a large survey amongst its authorship in ten geographic regions (Africa, Australasia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America, Northern and Central Europe, South Asia, South East Asia, Southern Europe) to discover their attitudes to Open Access (OA).  14,700 authors responded.

Along with the main report, it has also published a range of supplements based on the data, including Supplement 8 which explores author views on paywalls, funder and university requirements for using institutional repositories, embargos and their future intentions when it comes to publishing via OA publications.

The report highlights differences between regions and subject specialisms.

Key findings

When it comes to the acceptability of articles being embargoed behind a paywall before being made freely available, authors in the Humanities and STM are broadly in agreement:

• 45% of STM authors find it acceptable for their article to start behind a paywall as long as it is made freely available after an embargo period.

• 50% of Humanities authors agree

Institutional repositories

Over 12,000 authors responded to questions about whether they are required to submit a final accepted version of their manuscript into institutional repositories, either by their institution or by their research funder.

My University, Institution or Employer requires this:

• 38% said 'no'

• 15% said 'sometimes'

• 18% said 'yes – always into an institutional repository'

• 2% said 'yes – always into a subject repository'

• 6% said 'yes  - always into both an institutional and subject repository'

• A total of 10% said 'not yet'

• 11% did not know

My research funder requires this:

• 35% said 'no'

• 21% said 'sometimes'

• 9% said 'yes – always into an institutional repository'

• 3% said 'yes – always into a subject repository'

• 6% said 'yes – always into both an institutional and subject repository'

• A total of 7% said 'not yet'

• 19% did not know

Institutional repositories – regional differences

• In only four countries are 50% or more of authors required to deposit into institutional repositories: Taiwan, Belgium, Iran and China

• Taiwan tops the table of countries in which authors are required to upload to an institutional repository

  • 65% are required to do so by their universities

  • 57% by their funder

• Taiwan also has the highest proportion of authors (33%) who said they will choose to publish more in OA publications in the future

• In Belgium 58% are required to deposit into a repository

• In Iran 54% are required by their universities to deposit into a repository

• The figures for China are 50%

Future publishing intentions – I will choose to publish more often in OA journals

• Asia = 23%

• Africa = 20%

• Latin America = 19%

• Europe, Middle East = 15%

• USA/Canada, Australia  = 11%

Future publishing intentions – I will have to publish more often in OA journals

• Asia = 20%

• Africa = 16%

• Middle East = 15%

• Europe = 11%

• Latin America = 9%

• Australasia = 7%

• USA/Canada = 3%

The Taylor and Francis Open Access survey is available here.