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Review
. 2021 Apr 7:12:649915.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.649915. eCollection 2021.

Behavioral Reluctance in Adopting Open Access Publishing: Insights From a Goal-Directed Perspective

Massimo Köster  1   2 , Agnes Moors  1   2 , Jan De Houwer  3 , Tony Ross-Hellauer  4 , Inge Van Nieuwerburgh  5 , Frederick Verbruggen  6
Affiliations
Review

Behavioral Reluctance in Adopting Open Access Publishing: Insights From a Goal-Directed Perspective

Massimo Köster et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Despite growing awareness of the benefits of large-scale open access publishing, individual researchers seem reluctant to adopt this behavior, thereby slowing down the evolution toward a new scientific culture. We outline and apply a goal-directed framework of behavior causation to shed light on this type of behavioral reluctance and to organize and suggest possible intervention strategies. The framework explains behavior as the result of a cycle of events starting with the detection of a discrepancy between a goal and a status quo and the selection of behavior to reduce this discrepancy. We list various factors that may hinder this cycle and thus contribute to behavioral reluctance. After that, we highlight potential remedies to address each of the identified barriers. We thereby hope to point out new ways to think about behavioral reluctances in general, and in relation to open access publishing in particular.

Keywords: behavioral reluctance; goal-directed; intervention; meta-research; open access publishing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The goal-directed cycle: problems and interventions in open access publishing. The general goal-directed cycle is depicted with white bubbles as observable factors; gray bubbles with black letters as mental representations; gray bubble with white letters as a mental operation. S, status quo (or stimulus); Ov, valued outcome (V = value); O, actual outcome; E, expectancy; R, response or behavior. The application of the goal-directed cycle to open access publishing is depicted in blue handwriting. Problems and intervention strategies are located underneath the goal-directed cycle according to where they become relevant in the cycle. Figure adapted from Moors et al. (2019).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Exemplary goal-hierarchy involved in open access publishing. Thick full lines represent high expectancies of subordinate goals to superordinate goals. Thin full lines represent weak or negative expectancies of subordinate goals to superordinate goals. Thick dotted lines represent interventions that might establish high expectancies of subordinate goals to superordinate goals. R, response or behavior; Ov, valued outcome (V = value); and FOv, further valued outcome.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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