Survey Findings on the Publication and Open Access Practices of French Researchers

From aFrom a Couperin Statement (Mechanical Translation via Google Translate):

Unprecedented by its perimeter, by the number of respondents close to 12,000 and by their disciplinary variety, this survey makes it possible to draw some lessons on the perception of scientific communication current research by French researchers, mainly on publication in journals and their relationship to open access.

Researchers are generally in favor of open access and understand the major issue: dissemination science results in a free way.

However, this objective must be achieved for them without effort, in a simple, readable way and without direct funding from laboratories, all without shaking up
too the landscape of traditional journals of their discipline to which they are attached.

The contributions of scientific publishers, in particular the “big publishers” are sometimes criticized virulent: their excessive costs are pointed out by more than 85% of respondents.

The need for evolution of publishing is allowed but must not be based on an increase in journal titles, resulting in over-information and a decline in the quality of research.The research evaluation criteria, in particularly those using impact factors, are also mentioned as obstacles to the development of scientific publishing. The peer review process remains a recognized tool in many disciplines to guarantee the quality of publications.

However, it is considered insufficiently valued and little transparent. It should therefore change, in an internationalized and increasingly competitive context, where the evaluation of researchers through their publications would also evolve. Researchers would like to promote sustainable publishing, with ethical publishers, with an economic model virtuous. However, researchers are not prepared to take on additional efforts to adapt to the complexity of the publication process.Support on these questions could be beneficial.

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The favorable opinion on the accessibility of research data is independent of the disciplines and tempered both by the alleged risks of plagiarism, confidentiality and anonymization, and by the binding nature of the data deposit.Some have reservations linked to the risk of capture of this “new black gold” by commercial publishers.

Read the Complete Statement (& Links to Complete Report)

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Data Files, Funding, News, Open Access, Publishing