BMJ  2005;330:756 (2 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.38359.695220.82 (published 26 January 2005)

Paper

Perceptions of open access publishing: interviews with journal authors

Sara Schroter, senior researcher1, Leanne Tite, research assistant1, Richard Smith, editor1

1 BMJ Editorial Office, BMA House, London WC1 9JR

Correspondence to: S Schroter sschroter{at}bmj.com

Objective To explore authors' attitudes towards open access publishing and author charges, their perceptions of journals that charge authors, and whether they would be willing to submit to these journals.

Design Semistructured telephone interviews.

Participants 28 randomly selected international authors who submitted to the BMJ in 2003.

Results Authors were more aware of the concepts of open access publishing and author pays models than previously reported. Almost all authors supported the concept of open access, but few had submitted to an open access journal, other than the BMJ. Reasons for not submitting included lack of awareness of which journals publish with open access, and journal quality taking a higher priority in decision making than the availability of open access. Authors disliked the idea of author charges without institutional support and were concerned about implications for authors from developing countries and those without research funding. However, many said they would probably continue to submit to journals they perceived as being of high quality even if they charged authors.

Conclusions Authors consider perceived journal quality as more important than open access when deciding where to submit papers. New journals with open access may need to do more to reassure authors of the quality of their journals.


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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Authors poorly informed about Open Access
James E. Till
bmj.com, 31 Jan 2005 [Full text]
Open Access for scientific community in developing countries
Mohd. Aqil
bmj.com, 7 Feb 2005 [Full text]
Authors are poorly informed and blinded by the Impact factor
Hylton B. Menz
bmj.com, 5 Apr 2005 [Full text]
Open access is good to the scientific community and society at large
Arnab Kumar Laha
bmj.com, 11 May 2005 [Full text]
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